Dancing with the Fire
by Fox McCloude
Summary: The coming-of-age ceremony of the Prince and Princess of Hyrule is drawing near, and there will be a grand ball in it. Problem is, the crown prince hates formal ceremonies and dancing, although that might soon change when he finds the best dancing instructor he could ask for... DinxOC main couple, ZeLink secondary couple. Cover image made by Goddess Artemiss
1. Part I: The Red-Haired Dancer

**Dancing with the Fire**

 **By Fox McCloude**

 **Disclaimer:** The Legend of Zelda and all related characters belong to Nintendo. All rights reserved.

 **Part I:** The Red-Haired Dancer.

* * *

 ** _Hyrule Castle courtyards…_**

"I've told you, I'm not doing it."

"Yes you are."

The young heirs to the throne of Hyrule were at the central courtyard of the castle, having a… small disagreement. One glance at them was enough to tell they were fraternal twins, they had the same, dark brown straight hair, and similar facial traits, although Prince Zeil was taller and burlier. His hair, barely going down below his neck, was tied in a short ponytail hanging over his shoulder, with a long strand hanging between his eyes, and another pointing upwards like an antenna, and he had his late father's green eyes. His sister, Princess Zelda, had a slimmer and more slender figure, her hair fell reached halfway down her back and was tied in an elaborate braid, and she had her mother's blue eyes. Despite their physical resemblance, both siblings had very different personalities, tastes, and general tendencies, which frequently caused them to clash and argue with one another.

"Zeil, whether you like it or not, you must have learned by our coming-of-age ceremony." said Zelda. "Remember that we will turn 18 years old in one month's time and there will be a grand ball in the celebration. You need to be ready by then."

"Zelda, you already know how much those ceremonies bore me; besides, I hate dancing." Zeil replied.

"You're hopeless. There's much more in life than just going around swinging a sword."

"Says who? Little-Miss-Bookworm who's always all day long locked up in the royal library?"

"That's none of your business." said Zelda. "Mind you, if I do that is to keep up to speed with my studies, something that you could do every now and then."

"There are things you can't learn from books, you know that?"

"Our dancing instructor is very upset at the way you stormed off yesterday."

"That wasn't my fault, she did nothing but scolding me every time I made a mistake. Even I have my limits."

And so they were. The Prince was a rather headstrong young man when it came to formalities, he had a rebel streak and a fiery temper, and adding up that he hated being told what to do, let alone being lectured, well, it wasn't hard to imagine the result. The Princess, in stark contrast, was much more obedient and disciplined, and always tried her best to keep her brother in line, although sometimes her brother's stubbornness just made her lose her cool, and her patience was wearing thin. None of them wanted to relent in their stance.

"Zeil, listen to me, Mother is really worried because you don't make an effort to behave as you should." Zelda was struggling to control the anger in her voice, trying to keep civil. "Please consider that many nobles and kings from other lands will attend our ceremony, and you might earn a very bad reputation if you don't behave yourself."

"Hah, if they don't like me the way I am, that's their problem." was Zeil's response. "And if you're done with your lecturing, I'm off to take care of my business. By your leave, dear little sister."

"Zeil, I'm not done yet, get back here!" Zelda shouted, but Zeil paid no heed to her and left the courtyard, leaving her alone. The princess let out a sigh in resignation. "For the Goddesses, what did I do to deserve such a stubborn brother?"

"You know there's just no way to get him to change his mindset." A voice spoke up behind her.

Zelda turned around to see who had spoken to her, it was a young man about the same age as them, as tall as Zeil, and dressed in a green tunic with a matching floppy cap on his head, covering his messy blond hair, and had dark blue eyes. On his back, he carried a sword inside its sheath.

"Ah, it's you, Link. Were you listening?" asked Zelda.

"Sorry about that. I came over to ask Zeil to come over for some sparring, and when I arrived, you guys were arguing." The young man apologized, scratching the back of his head. "I didn't mean to eavesdrop."

"Don't worry, I'm just sorry you had to see that, it's so embarrassing having to tell him how to behave himself." said Zelda. "But I'm still worried, we're just one month away from the ceremony, and he's not helping at all."

"I can see that." said Link. "Although, to an extent, I can sympathize. The instructor has been rather harsh on him."

"Why don't _you_ talk to him instead?" Zelda proposed. "I get the feeling he would be more willing to listen to you."

That could be the most feasible option. Link and Zeil were the best of friends, almost like brothers, albeit still keeping a certain level of rivalry with each other since they were kids. All because the prince wanted to compete on a tournament for young swordfighters trying to prove himself. He reached the final with little to no complications, but it was then that he met his match, who was none other than Link. In terms of skill the two were evenly matched, except that Link had a small yet significant tactical advantage by being left-handed, which ended up making the difference. Zeil didn't take this defeat well at first, but it did serve as a motivation to train harder. A couple of years later, Link would join as an aspirant to the Royal Guard, and it wouldn't take long before the two became sparring partners. Even though Link was of low birth, the blond young man had formed a strong friendship with the prince and princess over the years, and his superior sword skills despite his young age, not to mention the unconditional loyalty he showed them, had earned him acknowledgement from the Queen of Hyrule herself, who even treated him like a second son.

"I can't promise that he'll listen to me." Said Link. "The way things are looking, I don't think Zeil would try to dance even by himself."

"That's exactly what I'm worried about." Zelda replied. "My mother feels somewhat uneasy at the impression Zeil could cause in the ceremony."

"I think I can help him vent his frustrations. Then I'll try talking to him, when he's cooled off, is that OK?"

"I'd be really grateful." The princess smiled at him.

Link smiled back at her, and calmly walked in the same direction as Zeil. The princess looked at him, and sighed, as she placed her hand on her chest. Over the years, Link had become the closest friend she and her brother ever had. Zeil sometimes would describe him as "the brother I wished I had" if only to make her angry. As for her, however, things were quite different. Her affection for Link had gone way past the point of considering him her best friend, or another brother, it was much deeper, and stronger. Admittedly, she considered him very handsome and he was definitely her type, and even though she was very often praised for her beauty, she often wondered if Link would consider her attractive.

* * *

 ** _Outside the castle, moments later…_**

Zeil had left the castle's walls, and had gone walking off to the castle town. The prince just wanted to have some time for himself, and get away from the lecturing of his sister and his superiors. At the lack of a better entertainment, he started throwing pebbles over the water canal streaming through the castle town's square, trying to get them to hop over the water surface. After a while, when his arm was too tired to keep up, he sat on a bench to rest.

"In a bad mood again?" Link's voice asked from behind.

"Hey there, Link." He greeted halfheartedly. Link sat next to him.

"The dancing lessons aren't going well, are they?"

"I don't want to talk about that." Zeil snapped back.

"You can't escape them forever." said Link. "Even I know that."

"Do you need to keep reminding me?"

"Come on, don't be like that." Link gave him a few friendly pats on the back. "How about we do some sparring? It'll help you vent out a little. Shall we go to the usual spot?"

"Nah, I'm not in the mood right now." Zeil replied.

"In that case… shall we go for a drink at the inn? My treat, if you want." Link offered.

Zeil hesitated a little, but he finally agreed. They both had a few rounds, and took their chance to chat for a while, which had the expected result, Zeil left his earlier anger behind. However, at nightfall, when they left the in to go back to the castle, they stopped at the square for a bit. A large crowd had gathered around what seemed to be an improvised stage, with people cheering and clapping loudly, and there was also a very upbeat music. They both approached to check it out, and they realized it was a troupe of traveling performers, so it seemed. And they both quickly took notice of the real center of attention, the dancing girl on the stage.

She was quite beautiful, tall and buxom, dark skin and red flaming hair falling down to her knees despite being tied in a ponytail. Her pink skintight costume only flattered even more her curvaceous figure, and her moves filled with grace, elegance and a small touch of sensuality left everyone speechless (mostly the males, at least). And speaking of speechless…

"*Whistle*, that girl does know how to move, huh, Zeil?" Link nudged his companion with the elbow, but he didn't reply back. "Zeil? Hey, I'm talking to you."

"Eh, what?" Zeil seemed like he was in a trance, which he didn't snap out of until Link waved his hand and snapped his fingers in front of his eyes. "Sorry, you were saying?"

"Well, well. If I didn't know better, I'd say you've just fallen in love, eh, loverboy?" Link gazed at him mischievously.

"Aw, come on, I don't even know her." said Zeil, turning around so his friend wouldn't notice he was blushing.

"Really, then why don't you take this chance to meet her? Come, let's get a little closer." Link grabbed his arm and dragged him along.

"Hey, wait!"

Against Zeil's protests, Link dragged him amongst the crowd, until they finally reached front row to see the red-haired dancer up close. Despite his initial refusal, in the inside Zeil admitted that she was quite attractive, not to mention very talented for her performance. It was like a show of dancing fire, her long, red hair gave her a perfect complement to her moves for that amazing effect of flames circling around her. They kept watching for a while, until, without warning, she glanced exactly in their direction, or more specifically, in the direction of the prince. The girl gave him an enigmatic smile, and then gestured with her hand, inviting him to come up to the stage with her.

"Hey, buddy, I think she means you." said Link.

"What, me?" Zeil didn't believe it.

"Yeah, what are you waiting for? Go get her!"

"Are you insane? I don't even know how to dance."

"She does, you can ask her to teach you."

"Hey, but I…!"

Zeil just couldn't finish her protest, because between Link's pushing, and the redhead grabbing his hand and practically dragging him by force on the stage, he was already there. He felt really flustered, standing right there in front of everyone, and furious at Link for pushing him into it. Although, looking on the bright side, the dancer's beauty was even greater upon seeing her up close, and that was something that, as much as he hated to admit it, wouldn't complain about.

"Excuse me, but… I'm not much of a dancer…" Zeil whispered, so only the girl would hear him.

"No need to worry, sweetheart. Leave it all to me." She replied, winking.

Zeil gulped down, but since he was already there, it wasn't like he had much of a choice. In the end, he let the redhead to take control of the situation (and him), wishing that everything came to an end as soon as possible. Indeed, it was her who put him to spin around the stage and do whatever she wanted. Amongst the crowd there were many males clearly jealous of him, they'd do anything to trade places, even though it didn't seem like she was enjoying it very much, or at all, for that matter. Once the accursed dance finally ended, Zeil felt a huge relief to finally jump off of the stage.

"We're leaving. NOW." He said to Link without a second thought.

Link hated missing out the fun, but he shrugged and followed his friend. Even so, and even though Zeil just wanted to get away from there as soon as possible, a strange impulse made him stop for a moment and turn back towards the stage. The redhead still smiled at him, and bid him farewell with a flying kiss. Zeil felt his face burning up even more and ran off without turning back anymore.

* * *

 ** _Inside the Castle…_**

Princess Zelda was still where Link had left her, still waiting for him as well as her brother to come back. Looking back now, she felt somewhat guilty for being so harsh on him. As soon as he came back she would apologize, and try to reason with him again without sounding as if she was lecturing him.

"…really embarrassing, you have no idea." Zelda heard her brother's voice approaching. They had returned.

"Hey, you have to admit it was fun." This time it was Link's voice speaking, and surely enough, they both appeared around the corner. "And I think she took a liking for you, too."

"Say one more word, and I'll rip your tongue off." Zeil growled. It was then that he spotted Zelda. "Ah, hey, sister."

"Did something bad happen?" Zelda asked, somewhat worried upon seeing that Zeil's mood didn't seem better than when he left.

"Nothing bad, Zelda." Link spoke up before Zeil could even utter a single word. "On the contrary, something VERY good."

"You got me to embarrass myself in front of all those people!" Zeil yelled. "Ah, that's enough. We'll talk about this later, when I'm in the mood."

And then he stormed off, stomping furiously. Link still had an ample smile in his face, but Zelda still wondered what had happened to make her brother so mad.

"What's he talking about? What happened, exactly?" She asked.

Link, trying to hold back the laughter, explained to Zelda their visit to the castle town square, they had stopped to watch the show of a dancing girl, and how she had "forced" Zeil into dancing with her. The blond young man also mentioned to the princess that her brother had been left dumbfounded for a while upon seeing the redhead, and no matter how much he said otherwise, Link was certain that Zeil had actually enjoyed it.

"You just wait." Link said. "Surely enough he's going to sneak out tomorrow to try and find her again."

"Are you going with him?" Zelda asked. Link couldn't help but notice a little streak of jealousy in her voice.

"Nah, I don't think so." Link replied. "If he wants to know her… I don't want to get in his way."

Meanwhile, at his chambers, Zeil was lying on his bed, unable to get that little… "show" out of his head. Despite everything he had said to Link, looking back now, it hadn't been so bad. As much as he hated to admit it, Link spoke truthfully, that dancer girl was quite beautiful, and with so many men gathered around her, which were the chances she would have picked _him_ of all people? Once it finally sunk in, he realized he had been lucky to have danced with her, and he acknowledged it hadn't been unpleasant at all.

"What's wrong with me?" He asked himself aloud. "I can't stop thinking about her, and I don't even know her name."

* * *

 ** _The next day…_**

That morning, Link could see, while he was in the middle of the usual early training session, Zeil seemed more distracted than usual. Yet he didn't say anything, because he already suspected (and correctly) which was the reason. So as to avoid making his friend feel bad, he intentionally let him win a couple of rounds, so the accounts ended up more or less even. The prince, however, did take notice that his partner had left openings on purpose, and when asked why, Link just played dumb. At lunch time, Zeil ate with a bit more of hurry than usual habitual, which didn't go unnoticed by his sister and mother.

Queen Selena, sitting on the table's main chair, was a lady seemingly in her late thirties, perhaps even early forties. Anyone who glanced at her could describe her as a more mature version of her daughter Zelda, as she had the same facial traits and eyes as her, although unlike her children, her hair was blonde instead of brown. Age didn't affect her attractiveness at all, for everyone agreed that she possessed an air of elegance and the kind of beauty that is only reached with maturity. She could be strict at times, but was also a loving and caring mother to her son and daughter.

"Thanks for the meal." He said, picking up his plates before the maid did it for him. Even more, he didn't even stay to wait for the dessert.

"You seem to be in a hurry today, my son. Is something amiss?" The Queen asked.

"Huh? No, no, of course not." Zeil replied. "I'll take these to the kitchen myself, thanks. By the way, Mother, I'll take a stroll around the castle town. Please don't wait for me on the afternoon. Later."

Zeil left the dining hall in quite a hurry, and Queen Selena was rather surprised at this. She glanced at her daughter, who didn't seem surprised at all, so the Queen guessed that she knew something.

"Zelda… do you know if your brother is up to something?" She asked directly.

"I can't say for sure, but…" Zelda made a pause before continuing. "… I believe, he's going to look for someone in particular."

After leaving the plates at the kitchen, Zeil went off to his room to get changed, skimming through in his closet for everyday clothes. Also, just in case, he'd take along his sword, he could never be sure of what he could run into out there. All set, he went towards the castle town.

He had gone directly to the square, exactly at the same place where he and Link had seen the red-haired dancer the day before. Just as Link had suspected, he was hoping to find her in that place. Unfortunately, the performers' troupe apparently was not making a show that day, so he didn't spot her anywhere. Still not giving up, Zeil decided to ask around if anyone had seen her, but nobody could give her any clues to her whereabouts. It seemed like the redhead had vanished just as soon as she had appeared. After spending the whole afternoon looking and asking just about everyone, he finally decided to stop by the inn in frustration, regretting not having followed through with Link's advice to take the chance to properly meet her when he had it. He sat by the bar and decided to ask for a drink.

"What's the matter, Your Highness?" The innkeeper asked. "You look rather… dispirited today."

"It's nothing." Zeil replied halfheartedly. "Bring me the usual, on the rocks, please."

"Right away."

The innkeeper and a couple minutes later he brought a very large and foamy glass jar. Whenever Zeil stopped by the inn for a drink, he only asked for rootbeer, taking into account that he was not authorized to drink any kind of liquor legally until after his coming-of-age ceremony. Nevertheless, it wasn't like he cared much about that, he was happy just to get something cold to drink whenever he was upset or frustrated about something.

After finishing his drink, he leaned on the bar, thoughtful. He was quite angry at himself for his own stubbornness, having wasted the chance of getting to know that red-haired beauty, and not even asking for her name. In stark contrast with his temperamental, rebel usual self, Zeil was rather shy when it came to women, and that was partly because never in his life he had given a shot to a sentimental relationship. His sister had beaten him on that area, as she had maintained a close relationship with Link from almost day one, going beyond being close friends. While at first Zeil was not amused at all at the idea of his sister getting involved sentimentally with his best friend (a typical overprotective older brother instinct, even though he was the older for only a few minutes), over time he had to resign himself to accept it. Thing was, they hadn't formally confessed to each other, but he knew it was but a matter of time. Even more, once the coming-of-age ceremony had passed, he was sure his sister would be the one to confess.

A while later, the innkeeper came by again, and placed another jar full of rootbeer next to Zeil. He was a bit puzzled because he didn't order anything else.

"Excuse me, I didn't order this." Zeil called out.

"The lady over there ordered it for you, Prince."

The innkeeper pointing at the other side of the bar. Zeil looked, and was quite surprised to see that the red-haired dancer girl was sitting over there, giving him a flirty smile. The girl raised her mug as if making a toast, and Zeil, shocked to see her appear when he had stopped looking for her, couldn't do anything but smile back at her. They were not too far off, yet for some reason, he didn't dare approach her. She was about four seats away, and he still didn't make any move to get close or try and talk to her. The girl didn't break visual contact, although she gave off the impression that she was waiting for Zeil to take the initiative. Maybe she had tried to break the ice by treating him another drink, hoping that this would give him the "little push" he needed. Still, Zeil didn't move an inch from his seat, he seemed to be content just with looking.

" _Come on, do something, talk to her."_ He told himself mentally.

A few minutes later, Zeil tried to open the mouth to say something, yet the words got lost upon reaching his throat. The redhead seemed to be getting impatient. It was as if she was trying to test him. Finally, she let out a sigh in resignation and decided to take action by herself. She stood up and started walking towards him, slightly wiggling her hips with style. She took the seat next to him, and still smiling, finally spoke up:

"Why is such a handsome young man like you so lonely around here?"

"Hmm… Would you believe me if I said… I was looking for you?" Zeil replied, trying to not to get nervous.

"Oh, that's interesting. Did you enjoy my dance yesterday?"

"You could say that yes, I did. I had never seen such a talented dancer."

"Why thank you, I feel flattered."

Alright, they had managed to strike a conversation. That was the first step, no doubt the hardest one. The next one, was a proper introduction.

"By the way, we haven't introduced ourselves. I..."

"I know who you are." She interrupted him. "You are the Crown Prince of Hyrule, Queen Selena's son, your name is Zeil."

"I see that my reputation precedes me." Zeil said. "Well, since you already know my name, will you grant me yours?"

"You can call me Din."

"Din? Like the Goddess of Power?" Zeil seemed a little surprised at this.

"Yes, that's my name." The redhead confirmed. "Is it wrong that a simple mortal like me is named after a deity?"

"No, no, of course not." Zeil answered. "Well… Din, how about you tell me a little about yourself? You're not from around here, are you? I mean, I had never seen you before around the castle town."

"That's because I come from the land of Holodrum."

"Wow, that's quite a long way." Zeil said. "So, what brings you here, to Hyrule?"

"Oh, nothing special, just… I'd love to share my dancing with the people of other lands." She said. For some reason Zeil had the feeling she might be hiding something, but didn't press any further.

"Well… do you have something to do at the moment?" Zeil asked. "We could… maybe, I don't know, take a walk and chat for a bit?"

"Gladly, that sounds good to me." Din said.

They both left the inn and began strolling around the square. After giving that first step it turned out to be much easier than he expected to talk to Din. The girl listened to him, and seemed to understand him well, something that he sometimes felt unable to do with his mother and sister. Before he realized, he was already telling Din about his lack of enthusiasm for his upcoming coming-of-age ceremony.

"… and she's always telling me "Zeil, that's how the tradition goes, you need to learn it", and all that blah, blah, blah…"

"You don't seem to like parties very much, do you?" Din commented.

"I have nothing against parties, but… I always feel out of place when there's a ball." Zeil replied.

"Then why don't you try to learn how to dance, if only a little?"

"Bah, it's just… I don't know, it's kind of silly… twirling around as if I were a wind-up toy or something."

"You think I look like a wind-up toy?" Din seemed to take offense at that comment.

"Eh? No, of course not. That wasn't aimed at you." Zeil immediately regretted what he had said. "You are… with you it's different."

"It's still dancing, one way or another." Din said. "Listen, dancing can be fun, and it's a great physical exercise to keep in shape."

"I don't doubt that." Zeil couldn't help but gaze at Din's curves with an appreciative eye. "But it can be a bit hard when your instructor does nothing but scolding you whenever you make a mistake or something."

"In that case, how about that you simply change instructors?" Din suggested. "How about to be taught by someone more… flexible?"

Zeil immediately caught the indirect. Still, he decided to play along for a bit.

"Someone like who?" He asked.

"I don't know…" She said, as she adopted a more or less provocative pose. "Perhaps… me?"

"You? No offense, but… I don't think that kind of dance would look good at a formal ceremony. Even I know that." Zeil pointed.

"Do you really think that's the only dance I can perform?" Din challenged him. "Please, I can do much more than that."

"Hmm… I can't be sure whether my mother would approve." Zeil became thoughtful. "I mean, having you as my dancing instructor…"

"We could meet in secret." Din suggested. "Well, it's not like I can force this upon you if you don't want to. But in case you change your mind…" She approached to whisper on his ear. "You can find me at the Northeastern Woods."

And saying no more, she left, once again swinging her hips with style as if she was trying to tease him. That girl really knew how to move even for something as simple as walking. Zeil remained thoughtful for a while. It seemed like a bit of an "indecent" proposal, meeting alone with such an attractive young woman, and if someone found out maybe they could spread rumors around. On the other hand, the perspective of replacing his current dancing instructor, a grumpy, fat old lady, for a younger and more charming one was too tempting to let it slide. And if Din had said the truth, about being more flexible as an instructor, he might even grow to like it…

* * *

 ** _Three days after, Hyrule Northeastern Woods…_**

Why hadn't Din given him a more concrete place to meet up? She had said "Northeastern Woods", but nothing else. Zeil wondered what a dancer like her could be doing in a place like that. Maybe she just didn't want to pay for the inn's fee or something like that. In any case, he had decided to take her up on her offer to learn how to dance under her, but now the problem laid on the fact that he didn't even know where the lessons would take place.

For the past three days, after their initial encounter, Zeil had been considering the redhead's proposal. The reason he didn't agree immediately was because he thought he should first consult his mother about it, after all, there was still one month left before he would turn of age. The Queen was a little skeptical when her son told her that he wanted to "change teachers" in regards to his learning how to dance, since, even though she was pretty much aware on how much he despised such classes (as well as the current instructor), she wasn't fully on board with the idea of leaving his son in the hands of a total stranger. As he refused to go into further details, it was Link, at Zelda's request, who spoke in his stead, even though Zeil tried to stop it. The young swordsman explained the Queen that the new instructor was a dancer who was stopping by the region. Queen Selena didn't agree until Zeil had a slip up with her name, that she was called Din. For a very short instant, a strange glint crossed the Queen's eyes, and afterwards she agreed. Zeil wondered if perhaps his mother knew something else about Din that he did not, yet he decided not to press with any more questions, lest that she could change her mind.

"Well… you told me I would find you at the Northeastern Woods. Here I am." Zeil said, speaking to nobody in particular. "The question is, where are you?"

He had been walking around in circles for about two hours, and he was starting to get annoyed. When he finally got tired of walking, he stopped at a clearing, and sat on a fallen log to rest, wondering if it had been a good idea to accept Din's proposal. Maybe she was just messing with him, maybe she didn't even have the intention to teach him and just said that to get him to come to this place for nothing. Well, he couldn't pass judgment without knowing her, but she certainly didn't seem like the "sweet and innocent" type at all.

"Bah, what was I thinking?" Zeil said as if he suddenly understood. "How could I trust her so easily?"

"Trust who?" A female voice spoke up behind him.

Zeil instinctively turned around, and his hand went straight for the sword hanging from his belt, but held back from unsheathing it once he saw who it was: Din stood before him, still with a smile in her face.

"Were you talking about me, perhaps?"

"Maybe I was." Zeil half-admitted. "Where did you come from? I've been lost in this forest for at least two hours looking for you."

"The master appears when the disciple is ready." Din replied in an enigmatic tone, although Zeil had the feeling she just wanted to dodge the question. "I assume that, if you're here now, you decided to accept my proposal?"

"Hmm… alright, yeah." Zeil said. "What I'd like to know is why, of all places, it had to be here."

"I like to be in contact with nature." Din replied. "Plus, nobody will interrupt us."

Zeil didn't say anything, but Din was right on that. At least he could avoid his mother and sister's lectures, and it was a rather quiet and relaxing place, far from the noisy castle town.

"Well then, follow me." Din turned around.

He followed her without a second thought. They went through the thickness of the forest, going even deeper. Zeil wondered if she actually knew where they were going. Eventually, after passing through a tricky path full of vines everywhere, they reached their seeming destination. Din had guided him to a tree which, from the looks on the outside, had been turned into a house, since in its incredibly thick trunk there was a door with some stairs, and a window on each side. He also noticed that above the tree there was some smoke, like a chimney. Din opened the door to invite Zeil in. In the inside there was one single big room, but with everything needed to live comfortably. There were some rugs on the floor, a table with two couches, a bookshelf, and a wooden rack full of plates, mugs and other stuff, close to a large stone fireplace with a large cauldron hanging over the fire. There was a stepladder leading to an upper level, with a large bed, which the prince quickly guessed was her sleeping place.

"Humble, but I hope you can be comfortable." Din said with modesty. "Shall we have a drink before we start? Some tea, perhaps?"

"Sounds good." Zeil said, still a bit surprised. "Hey, did you… build this place, by yourself?"

"Yes, I did." Din replied as she went towards the rack for a couple of mugs and a teapot.

"Had you been here before?" Zeil asked.

"Once or twice." Din replied, not paying much mind to it.

Din filled the teapot with some boiling water from the cauldron, and then added some herbs on it. To balance out the temperature, she added next a bit of cold water. She then mixed everything and poured it on two mugs, handing one of them to Zeil. The prince blew a little before taking a sip.

"Hmm, this is good." He said after tasting it. "So then, about your proposal before…"

"Yes, of course." Din interrupted him. "Still, there's no need for us to hurry. Before that… I thought that we could, maybe, chat a little, to get to know each other."

"Din, I came here because you promised to teach me how to dance." Zeil said directly. "I don't want to fool around."

"With all due respect, if you're going to become my disciple, you'll have to accept my terms for teaching you." Din replied, still smiling at him. "You might be the Crown Prince of Hyrule, but if I'm going to be your teacher, you'll have to do as I say, am I clear?"

"You're sounding a lot like that fat old hag." Zeil replied, frowning. "If you're going to be like that, I don't even know why I came in the first place."

"I promised I would be flexible with you." Din answered back. "But I need you to put your effort as well. I promise, I'm not going to bore or annoy you in any way."

"*Sigh*, alright, but… I don't get what's your interest in getting to know me."

"Oh, nothing special, it's just that… I like you." Din said the last part with a flirtatious tone, giving him a mischievous gaze. Zeil couldn't help but flush a little.

"Please be serious."

"I'm serious." She insisted. "I consider myself lucky, not every day I can have a guest as handsome as you."

"Din, stop it, you're embarrassing me." Zeil warned her.

"Do you know that you look cute when you're flustered like that?"

"I'm warning you, stop it." Zeil said again. "I'm not that kind of man."

"Oh, then is it that you don't like me?" Din attacked him directly.

"No! I mean, yes, I mean… aw, do you see what you're doing? I don't even know what I'm saying here."

Din giggled a little. She seemed to be having a lot of fun at teasing Zeil that way. Nevertheless, she knew her own limits. She now knew the prince could be rather temperamental and didn't want to get him to storm off due to her flirty teasing. Rather, she would take another approach.

"Pay no mind to me, I'm just teasing." She said. "You don't seem very used to little jokes, are you?"

"I guess not." Zeil admitted. "Not this kind, at least."

"If it bothers you, then I'll stop." Din said, this time with a much more serious face.

Zeil gazed at her. Din was just trying to break the ice between the two of them, and he had to ruin it by letting his stupid temper get the best of him. It was understandable, though, he had little-to-no experience about this kind of interaction with women, and about the question on whether he liked her or not, he had to admit to himself that she was far from being unattractive. He just didn't know how to act, let alone when she tried to take the initiative.

"*Sigh*, I'm sorry. It's just that… Look, to be honest, I'm not sure if I want…"

"A dancing instructor?" Din interrupted him. Zeil didn't say anything else, but she took his expression as an affirmative answer. "In that case… how about a friend?"

A friend? Zeil stopped to think about it. Considering all, aside from Zelda and Link, he actually didn't have many friends his own age, and not counting Zelda, he didn't have _any_ female friends at all. While Din seemed to have a rather provocative sense of humor, in the outside he could see she was a very nice young woman, in her own way. It wouldn't be bad to have someone to talk to, someone who didn't scold or lecture him, unlike his sister and mother.

"A friend… that doesn't sound bad." He finally said, a bit timidly.

"You can talk to me of anything you want." Din said. "What you like or what you dislike. I'll gladly lend you my ear."

"Well, since you insist…"

Once he felt she understood him, Zeil finally dropped his defenses. Before he noticed, he had begun asking Din personal questions as well. It was much easier than he expected to talk to her, to the point they didn't seem like two people who had barely met each other twice. He had no idea, but that was the redhead's original intention: she knew that if she presented herself as understanding, without pushing him, he would open up much more easily. So when she finally told him it was time to get started with their first lesson, Zeil apparently took it with a lot more enthusiasm than when he first arrived.

Just like Zeil had hoped and wished, Din turned out to be a much nicer and more flexible than his former instructor. The redhead proved herself to be knowledgeable of, not only that exotic dance she had performed at the Castle Town square, but also the formal dance for royal parties. When Zeil asked how did she know about it, she declined to give a direct answer, she just said that she "had been previously invited to other parties hosted by important people". Seeing in her eyes that she wouldn't say anything else, at least for the moment, he didn't press any further.

The lesson took up a large part of the afternoon. When Din saw the sun was setting and the sky was starting to get red shades, she finally said that it was all for the day. The redhead took him back to the clearing she had found him. On the way back, Zeil commented that he lost track of time and the lesson had been rather short, to what Din replied that "time surely flies when you're having fun".

"You better come here earlier tomorrow." Din said. "From now on, we'll meet up in this very spot."

"Right here?" Zeil asked. "Why don't you come to the castle instead?"

"Thanks, but no thanks." Din said. "I'm just fine here, I've told you, I like to be in contact with nature."

"Hmm…" Zeil looked a little suspicious at her, once again he felt she was hiding something, but decided to forget about it. "Alright, as you wish. See you tomorrow."

Zeil turned around and walked away as Din waved him goodbye, since he had to return to the castle soon. In his hurry, however, he didn't notice when Din lowered her hand and her smile vanished making way for a much more serious expression, as if she was concerned about something.

* * *

 ** _That night, somewhere else…_**

In another corner of Hyrule, covered in the darkness of the night, five shadowy silhouettes were kneeling before a bigger and more imposing one, who seemed to be their leader. They couldn't be clearly seen, yet the moonlight reflections made it evident that they wore heavy knight armors, with spikes on the shoulder pads and gauntlets, and horned helmets. They were in the middle of a mission, more specifically, in search of someone.

"Have you found her yet?" The leader spoke, with a deep and creepy voice which could shake anything around in terror.

"No, my lord." One of the kneeled silhouettes answered. "She's smart. She knows we're after her, and she's hiding well."

"Well, she can't stay hidden forever." The leader spoke up again.

"If you allow me to suggest something, my lord, we might be able to lure her out of her hideout if…"

"We've already discussed that." The leader interrupted. "I've told you this time and time again. If the royal family finds out we're here, they'll take measures, and that wouldn't be to our benefit."

"Of course. My apologies, my lord."

"For now, just keep going with the plan. And more importantly, keep a low profile. The less they know about us, the better. Now go."

"Yes, sire."

The five lesser silhouettes vanished in a purple fire explosion. Meanwhile, the bigger one gave a few steps forward, resounding on the floor, gazing at the moon on the sky.

"Oracle of the Seasons… no matter how much you hide, you can't escape from me forever."

* * *

 ** _As the days went on…_**

One week had passed since Zeil began his lessons with Din. Every day he had to fix up his routine in order to go to the agreed spot to meet with the redhead, always warning Link and Zelda not to follow him. While Link couldn't care less about what they were doing, Zelda was much more interested in getting to know this mysterious dancer, and Zeil found it much harder to get his sister off his back. He argued that he didn't want Zelda to be around to lecture him or something, but when the princess asked her brother directly if he was attracted to that girl, the prince got so mad that Zelda had no doubt. The truth was, Zeil seemed more cheerful and less prone to disobey the rules since he started those lessons, he was less temperamental and angry, so there was one thing for sure: that girl was making an influence on him.

That day, Zeil was at the library, making an effort to finish quickly an essay for the old history teacher, while Zelda and Link watched. The princess thought it was really weird to see her brother like that, after all, he had always been much more skilled with a sword than with a quill. Of course, the real reason to want to finish it quickly was so he could go to the woods to meet up with Din.

"Are you mad at him?" Link asked her.

"I wouldn't say mad, more like… worried, that's the right word." Zelda answered. "My brother has been quite different the past few days."

"Yeah, I noticed too." Link agreed.

"I'd like to meet that girl, Din." Zelda said. "You know, I find rather curious that she has the same name as the Goddess of Power, could it be just a coincidence?"

"I have no idea." Link said. "Although… that girl certainly had a beauty I could almost call divine, I have to admit it."

Zelda got a little tense at that comment, not exactly sure why, and she looked at Link in a rather strange way. The boy took a little to notice that the princess was glaring somewhat menacingly at him: clearly she didn't take kindly that comment.

"What?" Link asked innocently. "Just saying."

"Hmm…" Zelda didn't say anything else about it, and just pretended it didn't happen. "I'd like Zeil to invite her to come over. Maybe we could become friends."

Link wondered if Zelda had changed topics on purpose. That glare she gave him, just for a little comment he made, could it be jealousy? No, that couldn't be… could it?

Meanwhile, Zeil finished writing his essay, rolled up the scroll and not wasting any second, he left the library to deliver it to the professor, not even stopping to say hi to his friend and sister. Clearly he was in a hurry. After he had left, Zelda whispered to Link:

"Shall we follow him?"

"He'll be mad if we do that." Link said.

"Not if he doesn't notice." Zelda suggested. Link smirked at that.

Just as soon as Zeil left the castle and went towards the woods, the couple had to wait for a while so he would get far enough to not to notice them. For a moment they almost lost sight of him, but once they went deep into the woods, his red clothing easily gave him away in between the green, which made it much easier for them to follow him, the real problem was not making any noise. A couple of times, Zelda's dress got snagged in the bushes, and Zeil almost found them out. Link had a better advantage at hiding because he was wearing green, so he could easily serve as a cover for the princess.

Once they were deep into the forest, Zeil stopped to sit on the fallen log. He had done it since day one, Din told him to go to that spot, and wait for her to pick it up. He didn't quite understand why, since she only said that she "didn't want him to get lost". Meanwhile, Link and Zelda remained hidden, wondering why Zeil didn't move from the log. Was he waiting for something, or someone? Or maybe he had already noticed them following him? As if it were, Zeil absentmindedly took a small stone from the ground, played with it for a while… and then, without warning, he threw it in Link's direction.

"Hey!" Link yelled, jumping out of his hideout. The stone didn't hit him, but it passed dangerously close. "What was that for?"

"I thought I told you guys not to follow me." Zeil said. Then he looked the other way. "You come out too, sister, I know you're there."

"I see you're sharper than I thought." Zelda said as she came out too.

"What are you doing here?" Zeil asked.

"Well, we just… I wanted to meet your new dancing teacher." Zelda replied, there was no point in trying to lie to him, so she just told him the truth. "And… I asked Link to come with me, for protection." She added when she noticed Zeil looked sideways at Link.

"Sorry, Zeil." Link said. "I told her you wouldn't like this."

"Yeah, sure." Zeil replied, as if he would buy the story. "Hey, don't get me wrong, but these lessons are private. _Private_ , get it?"

"Zeil, is there anything wrong with it? I just want to meet your teacher." Zelda said.

"To meet her? And why the sudden interest?"

"Am I interrupting something?" They heard Din's voice, she had just arrived to pick up her student. "Oh, Zeil, I see you brought some guests."

"I didn't invite them, they followed me." Zeil was quick to correct.

"Well, there's no harm in them being here." The redhead said, approaching them to properly introduce herself. "I remember you, you were with Zeil that day at the Castle Town."

"I'm his best friend." The blond young man said with pride. "My name's Link."

"Pleased to meet you." Din said, and then she turned towards Zelda. "And you must be…"

"Zeil's twin sister, Princess of Hyrule, Zelda." She said while bowing respectfully. "Pleased to meet you, Miss Din."

"The pleasure is all mine, but please, there's no need to be so formal." Din said. "Would you like to accompany us for some tea?"

"Why of course." Zelda happily accepted.

Din turned around going back through the same path she came from, while Link, Zeil and Zelda followed her behind, throughout the vine path. The redhead told them to remain close by and not to get separated. Meanwhile, Zelda noticed something the others apparently missed out, or rather, something they couldn't perceive. Thanks to her training in magic and sorcery, Zelda could sense around them some trails of magical energy floating in the air, albeit very faint ones, almost imperceptible, but she decided to forget about it when she realized that they almost left her behind and continued walking. They continued the march until they reached Din's place. Zelda was too quite surprised upon seeing how Din had turned that tree in such a homely place. On the other hand, Zeil wasn't quite happy that his best friend and sister had discovered his "secret place". He was getting used to the idea of the "private lessons", since he could be all alone with the redhead, something he was taking a liking to. In fact, when Zelda and Din were enjoying a little chat, as if they were the best of friends, Zeil had to clear his throat to remind the redhead what they were supposed to be doing in the first place, so they went outside for the lesson.

The presence of Link and Zelda actually began making some negative influence on Zeil's performance, something Din quickly took notice of, since he had made a notable progress in the past few days, and yet now he was making mistakes like in the beginning. The prince couldn't focus well having the eyes of his sister and his best friend on him, let alone when they snickered at him whenever he made a wrong move or stepped on his teacher's feet.

"Zeil… those boots you're wearing really hurt my feet." Din said after a while, although she didn't seem to be angry or even annoyed.

"Sorry, it's just… I can't focus." Zeil said. "Not with those two looking."

"Just ignore them, pretend they're not even here." Din whispered.

"That's easy for you to say."

"And not that hard to do." Din insisted. "Just look at me, look into my eyes, and forget about everything else."

"Alright, I'll give it a try."

As surprising it could be, looking into Din's eyes had an immediate result. Zeil quickly forgot that Zelda and Link were staring at them. He was fully focused on what he was doing, something that really surprised his sister. And he wasn't just focused, but also, she could clearly see that he was enjoying it, a lot. But of course, how could he not enjoy it having such an attractive girl for an instructor?

"Well, well, he's done quite the progress in a very short time." Link commented.

"You're right." Zelda agreed. "I'm just hoping he can do just as good in our ceremony."

"Speaking of which… have you already decided who's going to be your dancing partner at the ball?" Link asked, quite boldly.

Zelda looked at Link through the corner of her eye, and gave him a half-smile. As if it wasn't obvious, she had decided a long time ago, but she chose to play along.

"I was hoping… maybe… it could be you." She said with a fake shyness.

"Me? Come on, Zelda, stop joking." Link said.

"I don't want to go with anyone else." Zelda continued. "I want my partner to be close to my age, and obviously it wouldn't look nice if I danced with my own brother."

"Heh, it's not like I have much of a choice, is it?" Link chuckled. "And what will your mother say about it?"

"I am certain that she would want me to go with you." Zelda replied. "After all, you know that she cares for you like a son, and there's nobody else she would trust more."

"There's no need to exaggerate." Link said, slightly blushing.

Even though Link had first come to the castle as an aspirant to the Royal Guard, the truth was that Queen Selena had clearly grown fond of him, and even though many of the members of the court didn't approve of this "special treatment", the Queen had argued that her children "needed a friend their own age". Zeil sometimes had said that his mother treated Link better, which wasn't entirely untrue, yet that was mostly due to the fact that the blond boy was more polite and well-behaved than the prince. Although what Zelda said, that her mother cared for Link "like a son", went more than just having fondness for the boy. The Queen was quite aware that her daughter's feelings for Link went well beyond than just friendship or loving him like a second brother. Many other kings and queens would be outraged at the thought of letting their daughter to get that close to a young man whose birth was so low, but Queen Selena used to say that "true royalty is only in the heart", and not only approved of the relationship of Zelda and Link, but she actively yet subtly encouraged it.

Once again the lesson took until the sunset, yet when the time came for them to leave, it was clear that Zeil wanted to stay for a little longer. Obviously that was because, since Link and Zelda had followed him to that place, he hadn't been able to spend the time alone with Din as much as he would have liked, yet he didn't admit that from the mouth outside. Nevertheless, Din insisted that since the lesson was already over it was best for them to return. Once again, Din accompanied them back to the clearing, and said goodbye to them, so the trio went back to the castle.

"She's a very nice girl." Zelda commented. "Although I can't understand why she chooses to live in this place."

"Too humble for your taste, Zelda?" Zeil asked.

"No, it's not that." Zelda answered. "I was thinking, perhaps we should invite her to stay at the castle. I mean, that way she'll have more time to give you the lessons, right?"

"Actually, I already tried that, but she said no." Zeil stated. "Apparently she prefers to be in contact with nature."

"I can sympathize with that." Link intervened. "If I had grown locked up in between stone walls, I would have grown bored to death."

"Yeah, you were so lucky." Zeil replied sarcastically. "I'm guessing she has her reasons, who cares."

None of the three teenagers said anything else for the rest of the way until they returned to the castle town. However, Zelda's intuition told her that perhaps Din had some special reason to be in that place in particular. Moreover, she had escorted them back and forth on the way to the clearing, and there were those magical energy trails she sensed around the path. Reflecting on this, Zelda theorized that those trails could be some kind of hiding/protective spell around Din's place, and the actual reason for her to accompany them was so they could pass through it safely. And the only sound reason to place that kind of spell would be to keep away undesired visitors. But that placed the question: what kind of visitors was Din trying to keep away? And more importantly, why?

* * *

 ** _One week after this, in another place…_**

The dark silhouettes had once again gathered in front of their leader, except that this time there were only four of them instead of five. Despite the darkness, if anyone were close at the time, they would have noticed that the leader was not very happy, let alone when his henchmen only came to deliver bad news.

"I can't believe this!" His voice echoed with fury. "Not even the whole lot of you was capable of capturing a single woman! And you call yourselves the Knights of Darkness!"

"We're so sorry, my liege." One of the knights spoke up. "She's just hiding too well."

"And why do you think I've sent you to look for her?! You're nothing but a bunch of useless fools! My patience is wearing thin, if you can't find her, I'll…"

But whatever he was planning to do to them, he didn't get the chance to say it. In that very instant, in a purple fire burst, the missing fifth knight appeared. He immediately kneeled to his leader respectfully.

"My lord."

"For your own good, I'm hoping you bring better news than the others." The leader said.

"I can assure you they're not bad news." The newly arrived knight said with determination. "I believe I have discovered the Oracle of Seasons' hiding place."

"You "believe"? I don't care what you "believe", I need facts, proof."

"There was a trail of residual magical energy of the nature around the Northeastern Woods." The knight said. "I went to investigate, and I noticed that every day, at the same hour, a young man with brown hair and red clothes appeared around that place. A few days later, I saw him meeting up with a woman whose physical appearance matches with that of the Oracle of Seasons."

"Are you sure about this?" The leader's rage subsided a little upon hearing this. "What happened with them?"

"I tried to follow them, but they suddenly vanished from sight shortly after they went deeper into the woods." The knight replied. "And every time I tried to try and follow them through the same path, before I realized, I was back on the same spot, as if I was walking around in circles."

The leader took his time to ponder on this new information. Interesting, they had vanished as if swallowed by the earth, and if his subordinate spoke the truth, then that could only mean one thing. The Oracle of Seasons most certainly was hiding at the Northeastern Woods, protected by some kind of magical barrier that kept her concealed and prevented entry to any undesired visitor. Like them, for example.

"Tell me something, did they notice your presence?"

"I doubt it, my lord."

"Good, then we can use that on our favor." The leader said. "With luck… that man she's meeting with will be our key to catch her at last."

"What are your orders, my lord?"

"Patrol around the area you saw them. If it's true they're always meeting at the same hour, she'll have to leave her protection to meet with him. That will be our chance. And whatever you lot do, keep your presence hidden. You don't want to ruin the surprise factor. Now go!"

"Yes, sire!"

And once again, they vanished in a burst of purple flames. The leader walked again, and hit his huge palm with his equally large fist, echoing in the night, and causing the terrified nearby animals to flee in terror.

"The hunt will come to an end soon. No one escapes Onox, the General of Darkness."

* * *

 ** _Several days later…_**

The lessons with Din continued, and three weeks after, even Zeil could feel the difference. He had improved quite a bit in a short amount of time, and not just that, but also, even though he wouldn't admit it out loud, he was actually starting to enjoy dancing. He wasn't as worried as before about mucho his coming-of-age ceremony, now he wouldn't have to put any excuses to avoid dancing, neither he would complain about having to do so. That afternoon, the lesson ended much earlier, and Din was quite pleased at her disciple's progress. However, as the days went by, he had stopped seeing her as his instructor. During the brief breaks they took in-between lessons, when they started talking, they almost always talked about Zeil, as Din usually asked him what was up at the castle, about his sister, his mother, and his friend Link. He didn't mind telling her, and she clearly enjoyed listening to him. However, he came to realize that he knew next to nothing about her, and that he wanted to know more. It was more than just enjoying her company, as a dancing instructor, or even as a friend. In fact, he sometimes imagined himself dancing with her during the ceremony, picturing her wearing a beautiful nightgown that would only highlight her already great beauty. Yet he didn't dare invite her, and he didn't understand why. Maybe he was afraid of a rejection?

" _If she volunteered to willingly to become my instructor, why wouldn't she come to the ball with me?"_ He thought.

The fact was, with the coming-of-age ceremony getting closer and closer, Zeil knew he couldn't wait until the last minute to ask her out. He wasn't sure his mother would approve of him inviting an exotic dancing girl to the ceremony, yet if she was willing to let her be his dancing instructor, that said a lot. Plus, he didn't want to go with anybody else. Sure, Din was barely getting out of the "perfect stranger" area with him, but she was very nice and attractive. And the ceremony would be a great chance to get to know her better.

"Zeil? Is anything wrong?" Din suddenly spoke, snapping him out of his thoughts.

"Eh? No, nothing, I was just… thinking." Zeil said, trying to regain composure.

"About what?" Din asked, as she gave him a flirtatious look. Interestingly enough, that was what made him most uncomfortable, yet at the same time what he liked the most of her.

"Well… the… coming-of-age ceremony … is getting closer." Zeil answered, trying to control his nerves.

"Ah, yes, of course." Din replied. "If memory serves, we have only 10 days left before it takes place?"

"Yeah, that's right." Zeil nodded, playing along. He had to break the ice himself. "Din, I was thinking… during all this time we've done nothing else but these lessons. I'd like… to change a bit the routine, if you get what I mean."

"Change the routine?"

"Also… I know this is a quiet and peaceful place, and that no one can disturb us here, but… I don't know, after a while, it can just become a little boring." Zeil explained. "Just for a change… we could go somewhere else, perhaps to eat something in the castle town, if you'd like."

"Zeil… are you asking me out on a date?" Din challenged him with the look.

"No, of course not!" Zeil yelled, almost panicking. "I just… I didn't mean to… *sigh*, alright, yes I am."

"Well, this is unexpected." Din said. "You seem like you've never asked a girl out before."

"That's because I never have." Zeil confessed. "So then?"

"I don't mind going for a meal with you." Din replied. "But I do like this place."

"So do I, yet I'd be happy with a change of scenery, if that's OK for you." Zeil insisted. "Din… I couldn't help but notice, whenever I suggest we go somewhere else… you seem to try to dodge it, why is that?"

Din remained silent, as if she meditated on the answer. How hard could it be? If she didn't want to go with him, he wouldn't force her. Yet the time she was taking to answer was bit weird. Once again, Zeil got that feeling that Din was hiding something. She was taking a rather… mysterious attitude.

"It's nothing in particular." She said. "Really, it's nothing you should be concerned about."

"Saying it that way won't work on me." Zeil insisted. "Din, I'll be honest with you. I've come to really like you, and I'd love to do other things with you. More than just learning how to dance."

That direct answer caught Din off-guard. The redhead unconsciously placed a hand on her chest. In the short time she had known him, Zeil wasn't very open with his feelings, at least not at first, yet now, he had said up front that he liked her. Maybe he was hoping that, by being sincere with her, she would be too.

"All done, I finally did it." Zeil said, although mostly to himself than Din. "Listen, if you don't want to have a date with me, or you just don't like me, then…"

"No, I never said that." Din quickly cleared up. "It's just that… I have my reasons."

"But you can't tell me? If you don't want to, just say so. You've done a lot for me during this time, I'm not going to force you to do more."

He said that he didn't want to force her to anything, yet it was crystal clear that he was dying to have a proper date with her. And inside, even if she didn't say it directly, she didn't find the idea unpleasant at all. But there was something… something that didn't allow her to leave those woods unless it was absolutely necessary. However… going out for just a few hours, and then returning… just to have a good time with Zeil for a bit, there would be no harm in that, right?

"I guess… we could, just for today." Din said. "It won't do any harm to break the routine just once."

"Then… you accept?"

"Of course."

"YES!" Zeil couldn't help but feel triumphant. "Shall we go now?"

"Hum… sure, let's go." Din replied, still a bit hesitant.

The couple left the house. Feeling a bit more confidant, Zeil offered Din to hold his arm, and she accepted timidly, yet gladly. He was planning on taking her to the inn at the castle town to treat her something, and right there to ask her to be his partner at the ball in the ceremony.

Along the way, however, Din struggled to keep her worries concealed. She was leaving the safety of her shelter. Even though she was confident that she could handle anything that came up, she didn't want to put Zeil at risk. Nevertheless, and paradoxically, when walking across the path, clinging to the prince's arm, she had a sudden and comforting feeling of being safe. She wasn't sure why, yet for some reason she believed (or rather, she _knew_ ) in the case that something "unexpected" came up, he would protect her, and that managed to ease her hears somewhat.

A few minutes later, when they were at a considerable distance from the shelter, Din suddenly stopped on her tracks, and looked above her shoulder, catching Zeil off-guard.

"Is anything wrong?" Zeil asked. Din just looked around and took a few seconds to answer.

"I thought… I heard something." Din said. "Maybe… it was just a wild animal. Let's go."

Once again, Zeil felt that Din was keeping to herself something that she didn't want to say. But he chose not to press further, and they continued their walk.

Not far from there, hidden amongst the shadows created by the treetops and the thick bushes, two large black silhouettes came out. They were two Knights of Darkness who had appeared before that bigger one that called himself Onox. They had been waiting for a while for her to appear, but upon seeing their prey wasn't alone, they thought it would be better to wait. Then they could catch her.

"That was close." The first said to his partner. "They almost spotted us."

"Better be more careful next time." The other said. "But now she's out of her shelter, the better for us. It'll be easier to capture her later."

And keeping a safe distance, they followed the couple along the path, careful not to let them out of their sight.

* * *

 ** _Later, at the Castle Town…_**

The residents of the Castle Town were quite surprised to see Zeil and Din passed through the grand door, and holding to each other's arm. Zeil felt rather uncomfortable of everyone staring at them, but after all, he had been the one who invited her, so he chose to deal with it. Din, on the other hand, while she looked calm on the outside, inside she felt a little uneasy at having left her safe shelter. However, since she didn't want to worry him anymore, she kept it to herself. And should something come up, she knew how to deal with it. For the time being, her only concern was to have a good time with him.

They made their way towards the inn, which that day, fortunately, was a lot emptier than usual. However, Zeil knew that in just a few days, the place would most certainly be completely full of people coming to attend the coming-of-age ceremony, so he congratulated himself for choosing that very day to avoid the crowds. They approached the bar, and the innkeeper immediately came over to serve them.

"Good afternoon, Prince Zeil. I see you're not coming alone today."

"Yeah, I decided not to refuse a good company today." Zeil said half-jokingly, and the innkeeper couldn't help but chuckle a little.

"The usual?"

"No, today I'd like the house specialty. We'll have dinner here."

"I see. I'll bring it immediately." The innkeeper said. "Will you order something to drink as well?"

"I'll have a firewhiskey, if you have it." Din asked.

"And a rootbeer on the rocks for me, please." Zeil added.

"Coming up. There's a free table over there, please wait."

Zeil and Din went towards the table to wait for their meal. As they waited, Zeil, trying to open up something to chat, asked Din if she used to drink firewhiskey with her food, to what she replied that "only occasionally". She also said that it was a pity he couldn't drink it yet, it was quite good. He then reminded her there were only a few days left to be of legal age, so the next time he would gladly treat her with one. Din smiled at the idea, admitted that she would be happy to be on the receiving end of the treat for a change. A few minutes later, the staff brought them their meals.

They both spent the afternoon enjoying their chat, and before they realized, night was falling. They were enjoying themselves so much they lost track of time, until the innkeeper told them he would be closing in about half an hour. Zeil asked if they could stay until then, since most people had already left and it was rather quiet so they could talk a little more. The innkeeper said they could, but past that time they'd have to leave.

"I'll say it again, time flies by when you're having a good time." Din said.

"So, does that mean you had a good time with me?"

"A wonderful time." Din nodded. "After your ceremony, we should come here again."

"Whenever you like." Zeil smiled at her.

They both remained silent, looking into each other's eyes. For some reason, as they did that, Zeil once again experienced that same feeling he had when he and Din danced together during their lessons. That sensation of being disconnected from the rest of the world around them, that it was just him and her. And as weird it sounded, he loved that sensation. A part of himself wanted (some would say, wished) that only Din would exist in his world. Only Din. The time he had shared with her had not been too long, but it had been amazing. After all, she was an amazing girl, and that was still falling short. She was attractive in many ways, not just in physique and talent, but also in personality: she was easygoing, fun-loving and with attitude, a strong-willed woman, but she knew how to make use of her femininity and charm when she had to. She was one in a million. There wasn't any point in waiting more. Gathering up his courage, he began speaking up.

"Din, about what I said… my coming-of-age ceremony… there's something I forgot to say."

"What is it?"

"Well… obviously, since there's going to be the ball… I'll need… you know."

Once again, the nerves were getting the best of him. But since he had begun already, he couldn't hesitate now. Still, Din smiled at him, as if pretending she didn't understand. Zeil felt a little rage boiling inside. She wanted him to go upfront, no indirects. Then again, that was one of the things he loved the most about her.

"Din, what I'm trying to say is… I want you to be my dancing partner at the ceremony." He finally said. After a moment of silence, Din's smile made way for a little giggling that soon turned into a happy laughter. Zeil couldn't believe it, she was making fun of him. "Hey, what's wrong with you, what's so funny?"

"I'm sorry." Din finally said upon catching her breath. "It's just that… I was starting to believe that you wouldn't invite me. I was planning on doing it myself instead."

"What did you say? What do you mean by…?" And then Zeil finally caught the message. "Wait a minute… you _wanted_ me to invite you?"

"That was the idea." Din said, still smiling.

"Are you trying to make fun of me?"

"No way." Din said without losing her composure. "I was just trying to make you a little favor."

"A favor?" Zeil still didn't get it.

"Isn't it obvious? When I first met you, you were too closed up, not to mention very temperamental. I thought that, maybe, I could help you open up, and with a bit of luck, perhaps I could also cool off that fiery personality of yours."

Zeil opened up his mouth to say something, but no words came out. He couldn't refute that, she was totally right. She had helped cool off his temper a bit, and to open up more of himself. Proof of that was, in the past few weeks, he had never dared to reply back to his mother and sister anymore. In fact, he couldn't recall that in that time, they had scolded or lectured for something, which usually was an everyday thing. He hadn't noticed, but his time with Din had influenced him positively in more than one way.

"It's true." He admitted. "As of late, I haven't felt angry at all for anything."

"You see?" Din said. "And not only that. I got you to open up enough for you to invite me to the ball, and all by yourself. Tell me, would you have dared to do this one month ago?"

"Hmm… no, I guess not."

"Which means, my plan was a success." Din concluded. "Although… maybe you could have been a little more subtle with words. I mean, you just went "I want you to be my partner" like that…"

"Stop making fun of me." He snapped. "I've never been good with words, let alone when…"

"Shhh." Din interrupted him, placing her finger. "Do you want a little advice? Sometimes, actions speak louder than words."

And removing her finger, still smiling at him, she leaned in closer, slowly. Zeil felt an electric current going down her spine. Was she planning to…?

" _Oh, Goddesses… is she going to…?"_

But right when she was about to do it, unfortunately, a loud noise, like an explosion, resounded outside. As if it was an alarm, Din stopped, and the kiss she was about to give Zeil never came. But of course, after such a noise, he wouldn't care about that.

"What was that?" Zeil asked.

"I think it was… oh, no, they're here." Din said.

"They're here? Who?"

"Wait here, I'll be right back." And immediately, she got up from her seat, getting out of the inn in a hurry.

"Hey, wait! Where're you going?"

But Din didn't answer, and she went through the inn's entrance doors, going out to the castle town. Zeil was so confused at this sudden action that he took a few seconds to react. There was something up, and it definitely wasn't good. Din seemed quite fast on her feet, since when the prince left the in, after doubling back to pay the bill for their meal, she didn't see her anywhere. People seemed to have been alarmed by the sudden noise, but now they were going back to their homes, either they didn't care, or they were too scared to try and find out. Zeil called out Din's name aloud, but she didn't reply, so he had no choice but to run around the town to try and find her.

Din had gone into a dark alley, in between several abandoned houses. She looked around everywhere, as if she was following something she couldn't see, but she could sense. She had to get away from there, otherwise she'd put everyone, and specially Zeil, in danger. If it really was them… she wished from the bottom of her heart to be wrong. But upon turning around a corner, she could see that she wasn't. In front of her there were two huge dark knights, dressed in heavy dark armors and matching capes.

"We finally found you, Miss Oracle of Seasons." One of them spoke.

"I knew it." Din said.

"You've caused us no small amount of problems." The second one said. "But General Onox was right, you couldn't stay hidden forever."

" _Oh, no; it's worse than I thought."_ Din thought.

Meanwhile, Zeil was still looking for Din. By mere coincidence he entered the same alley where she was. His brief relief was trounced when he saw the two huge and dark figures in front of her.

"Oh, my… this seems like bad news." He said as he ran off into the alley.

Worried at the thought of the two dark figures being up to nothing good, Zeil first hid himself behind a wall to analyze the situation and act when needed. Spying carefully, all he could see were the black cloaks they wore, which easily helped them blend in with the dark alley, something that could easily be linked to "shadowy" purposes. He just wanted to make sure, but if things got ugly, well, he had his sword at hand. He listened carefully at their talk.

"You can't run anymore, gorgeous." One of them said.

"You better come with us quietly, it would be a shame having to hurt you." His friend added.

"I'm really sorry, but my answer is no." The redhead replied, defiantly.

"You have no choice. We have orders to bring you in, and if you don't cooperate…"

"What will you do? You'll take me by force?" She spoke again with the same defiant tone. "I'd like to see you try."

"That can be arranged."

The two dark knights pulled out their weapons, one of them had a large axe, and the other a heavy mace. Surprisingly, Din didn't give any sign of being scared or something, but Zeil wasn't going to stay put and leave her to fend by herself, so he finally decided to act.

"Hey." He said as he pulled out his sword. The dark knights turned around, and it was then that he could finally get a glance to their armors. "Didn't you hear the lady? She said no."

"And who do you think you are?"

"Get outta here, kid, if you don't want to get hurt or worse."

"On second thought, maybe we should get rid of him, we mustn't leave any witnesses."

"Do your worst." Zeil took a guard stance with his sword ready.

The one with the axe attacked first. Zeil wielded his sword with both hands and parried the attack, and despite making him flinch, he was able to push back the enemy. As they exited the alley, he could get a clearer view of the knight, his armor fully covered him, giving him a virtually impenetrable protection; however, it was also quite heavy and made his movements a tad slow and sluggish, which the prince knew he had to exploit to his own advantage, especially being one against two. The one with the mace tried to deliver a hard strike on him, burying his weapon on the ground with a loud cracking noise, yet Zeil was able to avoid it by jumping backwards, and trying to think quickly which zones of his adversaries would be the most vulnerable. The axe knight jumped on him and tried to deliver a horizontal strike to cut off his head, Zeil ducked to evade it, while he delivered a full circle strike as hard has he could towards his opponent's leg, causing him to lose balance. He then struck the knight's hand with his sword blunt side to get him to let go of his weapon, which Zeil then grabbed and threw away from him. Which wasn't easy, since it was too heavy, he needed to use both hands, and he wondered how in the world this guy was capable of swinging it one-handed. Then again, maybe his large size was not just for show.

"You accursed little brat, I'll show you!" The mace knight yelled, preparing to deliver a strike on Zeil.

The prince was ready to take him on, but he didn't have to: suddenly, without a warning, Din jumped above him, and in mid-air while performing a somersault she used her hands to turn around his helmet and obstruct his view. She jumped and twirled a little more before landing next to Zeil, who was quite impressed.

"WHAT THE…! GET THIS THING OFF ME!" The mace knight yelled, swinging his weapon in fury.

"I can handle them, but thanks for the help." Din said smiling at Zeil.

"GRAHH! I DON'T NEED TO SEE YOU, I'LL JUST CRUSH YOU!"

Even unable to see where he was going, the mace knight was even more dangerous for wildly swinging his weapon and he had already left several holes and cracks on the floor and the walls, hoping that he would hit one of them. Zeil and Din just kept their distance. Meanwhile, the axe knight, even though he had lost his weapon, had finally managed to get back on his feet (with difficulty, due to the armor's weight), and ignoring the prince, he ran off to try and capture the redhead. Din, not leaving for a second that defiant smile of hers, simply evaded his strikes moving in a way that Zeil easily recognized as the dance she was performing on the day he and Link first saw her in town, with a lot of grace and style, and the heavy knight didn't so much scratch a hair of her head.

"Stop dancing around and get serious! RAAAAAAAH!" He yelled in rage, trying to trap her with his large arms. The redhead just waited until the last second, deliberately playing herself in the same direction towards the other knight, who was still striking randomly with his mace, and she dodged her attacker, with the result of…

 ** _CLONK!_** The mace strike resounded with the force of a church bell on the helmet of the other knight. And it didn't stop there. The redhead opened up her arms, and closing her eyes to focus, she generated a pair of fireballs in her hands. After performing a few moves which looked a lot during a ritual dance, leaving a flaming trail whenever she moved, she placed both hands forward, combining both fireballs into a larger one.

"SACRED FIRE!" She yelled as she threw the large flaming sphere.

 ** _BOOOOM!_** The fireball hit the dark knight with great force, still stunned by his partner's mace strike was engulfed in a burst of flames, and after many agony cries he was consumed by the fire, leaving but a trace of black ashes. Zeil was left dumbfounded, between having seen the girl use the fire to attack like that, and seeing the dark knight vanish in the flames.

"What the…?"

"There's no need to hold back." Din said, her expression turned serious now. "They're not even human."

Despite his initial puzzlement, Zeil quickly caught the message, it meant he could use deadly force without any remorse. Meanwhile, the remaining dark knight finally stopped attacking wildly upon realizing he had hit something, and put his helmet back to normal. He felt a huge rage upon seeing that both Zeil and the girl were unharmed, and his partner was but a small charred amount of ashes.

"NO! You bastards will pay for this!" He yelled, charging again.

Instinctively, Zeil placed himself in front of Din to protect her. He dodged another mace strike, and delivered a thrust towards one of the knight's shoulders, as it was unprotected. The knight shrieked in pain, and the prince snuck behind him and pulled his cape to get him to fall backwards. The redhead once again used her fire attack, and the dark knight, just like his partner, succumbed to the sacred flames. Everything had ended as soon as it started. Zeil touched the knights' remains with the tip of his sword, as if fearing they could somehow revive.

"We better get out of here." Din said. "These two aren't the only ones."

"Let's go to the castle." Zeil said.

"No. We need to go back to my shelter." Din contradicted him.

"Why is that?"

"I'll explain later." Din said. "Come on, we have to go now."

"Din, will you tell me what's going on?"

"There's no time now, we HAVE to go. Before the others come."

"Others? Do you mean…?"

Before he could ask any more questions, she grabbed his wrist and ran off. With so many questions in his head, Zeil was sure about only one thing: something very strange was happening. Something or someone was after Din and she didn't want to endanger him or anyone else. The two left the castle town in a hurry, just as the drawbridge was about to be lifted. Outside, the redhead stopped for a moment, and looked around on every direction before heading back to the Northeastern Woods, never letting go of Zeil's wrist. In fact, the prince was starting to feel rather uncomfortable since she was holding her a little too tight (especially for a woman) and it actually started to hurt. Once they got back into the woods, Din stopped for a moment, and Zeil waited until he regained his breath to question her again.

"Din, who or what were those guys?" He asked first. "You said before they weren't humans, what does that…?"

"They're dark knights." Din answered before he finished. It seemed she had her answer in the ready. "Creatures born from the shadows, given life through dark magic. And I only know one person capable of that."

"Who is it?"

"The General of Darkness." Din said. "His name is Onox, and he's been after me for a very long time."

Zeil was confused. Why would a "General of Darkness" want to go after a mere dancer like her? Unless… unless she was MORE than just a mere dancer. Zeil then remembered that she had destroyed the dark knights with a magical fire (she had called it "Sacred Fire"). Now he didn't have any doubts: Din was hiding something from him, something serious. But before he could resume the interrogatory, Din pointed that they had to continue their way towards the shelter, their pursuers were approaching. Zeil didn't see anything, but he remembered that, back on the castle town, she got out of the inn even before seeing them, so he assumed that she maybe could feel their presence or something. If their priority was to get out of there, the questions would have to wait.

Once deep into the woods, Din went towards the clearing where she usually picked Zeil up for the dancing lessons. After getting past the clearing, she stopped for a moment, and upon watching around, she focused and threw a fireball. Surprisingly enough, the fire didn't spread around the forest, instead, it just remained contained within the clearing, creating some sort of wall.

"That should buy us some time, they'll have to circle around to catch us." Din explained, gesturing Zeil to continue.

They both continued their way towards Din's shelter. Passing through the woods in such conditions was not easy, and to take some cut shorts sometimes they had to pass through thorny bushes and roots. But they were in greater danger than they expected, for the darkness itself was an ally to the knights.

"Argh!" Zeil suddenly yelled. A sharp object had just nailed into his arm.

"Zeil!" Din stopped at the scream, and upon looking at him, she saw he had been hit with an arrow, a dark arrow.

"I'm alright, it's just a scratch." Zeil said, trying to ignore the pain. "Hurry, we have to keep moving."

"Get down!" Din cried out, clinging to him and crouching down when another arrow passed over them.

They both took cover behind a tree to shield themselves from another round of arrows. Taking a peek they noticed the dark knights were catching up to them, and they could hear their voices whispering as they made their way through. They weren't too far from Din's shelter, but until they reached it, they would still be in danger. Going a little further, they reached a hollow tree, and hid inside it to take a breather. Din took the chance to check out Zeil's arm. The arrow fortunately didn't hit the bone, neither had it seemed to be poisoned, as Zeil had been able to keep running without a problem, and didn't show any symptoms of feeling ill either. In any case, and just for precaution, Din didn't dare pull it out to avoid causing him a hemorrhage. Meanwhile, the dark knights continued chasing after them. They both clung to each other tightly, holding their breath when they heard them approaching, praying for them to pass them over. They waited for a few minutes and, for some kind of miracle, they did. The couple peeked outside to make sure they were gone.

"That was close." Zeil said, wiping the sweat off his forehead.

"We can't rest easy just yet." Din said. "Not until we reach my shelter."

"Which way?" Zeil asked.

"We need to go straight ahead. Luckily it's not too far." Din replied.

"We should try and get them off our tracks a little longer." Zeil picked up a stone.

"What are you doing?"

Zeil didn't answer, he simply threw the stone as far as he could so the dark knights would hear it and go in that direction, who were not smart enough to try and split up to cover up more terrain as they searched. That, of course, acted on Zeil and Din's favor. Upon hearing the stone, the dark knights ran off in that direction, while the prince and the dancer took the chance to go the other way towards the shelter.

However, just one minute later, they got wise of their plan, as once again they started firing their arrows, fortunately they missed. As they ran, Zeil tripped with a root, and when he tried to get up again, a pain on his knee stopped him: it had fallen on a hard stone.

"Don't stop for me, go on." He said to Din.

"Don't be stupid, you think I'm going to leave you here?" The redhead said. "Come on, lean on me."

Din helped Zeil getting back on his feet. The knights had ceased firing their arrows, maybe they had run out of ammo. However, Din was barely strong enough to run holding Zeil that way, and that greatly slowed her down. A little more… just a little more…

"Almost there!" Din muttered.

Zeil finally couldn't resist the urge to look back, and he saw that the dark knights were catching up to them. Din suddenly stopped without warning, but before he could ask why, when the pursuers were right on them, they vanished without a trace. Zeil was confused, but relieved once he didn't see them anymore. Before the prince could regain his breath and ask, Din seemed to read his mind and answered the unspoken question:

"We're already safe. They can't pass through the magical barrier."

"Magical… barrier?" Zeil asked.

"I placed a protective barrier around my shelter." Din explained. "Only I can open or close it. Nobody can pass through it, unless they come with me."

"What do you…?" Zeil was about to ask again but she stopped him.

"I know you have many questions, and I'll gladly answer them. But first, I need to do something about your arm and knee."

Zeil didn't dare argue that. At the very least, he would finally have some answers, but he didn't mind waiting until after she had treated his wounds. He wasn't in that much of a hurry.

 ** _To be continued…_**

* * *

 **Author's notes:**

How's it going people? Well, last year when I returned to the writing fandom, I decided to take a look at my old stories to see if they were worth reediting. In this one I didn't do big deal, I just corrected a few minor errors, and edited the physical description of my OC, Prince Zeil, after I decided to revamp his design on my DeviantArt. This was my first story pairing an original character with a canon one, so I'd love to know your thoughts about it, if I managed to get it right. Also, the original story was a three-parter, yet in order to make it more consistent with my current chapter lengths, I decided to make the English version a two-parter instead.

I've considered the possibility of writing other stories in this same continuity. One I already made (only in Spanish so far) is a prequel detailing the first encounter between Link, Zelda and Zeil, as well as how they became friends. And for the future, I'm planning a sequel featuring the other two Oracles, Nayru and Farore. If anyone wants to help, I'd love to receive suggestions for that.

That's all, thanks for reading, and don't forget to share your thoughts with some reviews. I'll work on the second half very soon, so stay tuned.


	2. Part II: The General of Darkness

**Dancing with the Fire**

 **By Fox McCloude**

 **Disclaimer:** The Legend of Zelda and all related characters belong to Nintendo. All rights reserved.

 **Part II:** The General of Darkness.

* * *

 ** _Inside Din's shelter…_**

Once they were safe from their pursuers, the girl was able to carefully remove the arrow from Zeil's arm, although it unexplainably vanished in a puff of black smoke just shortly after. Din prepared a mix of medicinal herbs to heal both the arrow wound and the injured knee. They were surprisingly effective, since just about ten minutes later he felt good as new, as if he hadn't been injured at all. Now, the time for the truth had arrived.

"That should do just fine." Din said. "How does it feel?"

"Wonderful." Zeil moved his arm and leg, showing that he didn't feel any pain at all.

"Well then, I… I guess that now we can talk calmly and at ease, can we?" Din suggested. "I'm ready to answer your questions."

"Where should I start? I've got too many." Zeil replied.

Knowing that the prince would feel unsure on what should be the best to start with, Din decided to tell her story by herself. She stood up, and turned her back on Zeil. Obviously, she had a hard time facing him, after hiding this secret for so long.

"Zeil… those dark knights who attacked us were envoys of Onox, the General of Darkness." She began. "A few years ago, Onox was a general serving the guard of Holodrum, dedicated to protect the region. However, his ambitions and lust for power corrupted him, and he sold his own soul to evil in exchange for immortality and great dark powers. He began wreaking havoc and bringing destruction around the entire region. Those were dark times, the most terrible we ever had."

"I can only imagine." Zeil listened carefully.

"Finally, we were able to defeat him. For his acts, we sentenced him to eternal imprisonment in a magical prison."

"If he's as evil as you say, wouldn't have been better to execute him?" Zeil asked. "Then again, if he's… well, "immortal", that would be a little hard, right?"

"Onox's immortality is only limited to aging or dying for natural causes. However, it is possible for him to die for external causes, in other words, yes, he can be killed." Din explained. She then added, with a little touch of shame in her voice. "And now that I think about it… yes, we should have executed him."

"Well, I get that part." Zeil continued. "What I don't get is, what's your place in all of this? Why is Onox after you, anyway?"

"I was about to get to that part." Din finally turned around to face him again. "Zeil… with everything that has been going on, I feel that I can trust you with my secret. As I'm sure you must have deduced, I'm not just a dancer. I'm the Oracle of the Seasons in Holodrum, the guardian of the Essences of Nature."

Zeil was left speechless. Surely enough he wasn't expecting that. Din was a much more important person than he imagined. And all this time, he had behaved in such a casual manner with her. Part of him now felt embarrassed at that thought. Din however, continued her story:

"The last time, at Holodrum, Onox captured me to use my powers. As the Oracle of Seasons, I have power over the forces of nature themselves."

"That sounds unbelievable." Zeil admitted.

"I'll show you. Let's go out for a bit."

Unsure about what she was about to show him, yet at the same time full of curiosity, Zeil followed Din outside of the tree. The redhead took her distance, and turned around to fix her stare on Zeil. Next, she closed her eyes and placed her hands as if she was making a prayer. About two seconds later, she was enveloped by a bright energy, which changed in a cycle over all of the colors of the rainbow, as she herself floated a few centimeters abovee the ground and her long red hair floated upwards. A moment later, Din opened up her arms, and the energy surrounding her dispersed itself around the whole place.

If all happened in a minute or so. They were in the middle of the summer, and all of a sudden, all of the leaves in Din's tree, as well as those of the plants around them, changed colors, and then fell of covering the ground. And it didn't stop there: a strong and cold wind started blowing, taking away the fallen leaves, and making way for a snowfall. Zeil hadn't still gotten over his astonishment when just a few seconds later it got warmer again, the snow melted, and then it started raining. The leafless plants once again became filled with life and green color, blooming their flowers. The green in the leaves became more and more intense, until they were right back where they started. Zeil was left speechless. He has just gone through the entire cycle of the seasons in less than one minute. Din landed her feet back on the ground, and gazed at the prince, who despite being quite surprised for what he had just seen, apparently understood the whole situation.

"No kidding." Zeil said. "That was amazing, really."

"Do you understand now?" Din asked. "This is what Onox wants. Controlling my power means controlling the nature, and the seasons themselves."

"Yeah, I understand." Zeil said. "With that kind of power, he could cause a lot of destruction, and end lie as we know it."

Right then, Zeil pondered on something he hadn't paid attention to, until that very moment. The dark knights sent by Onox had attacked them while they were at the castle town, because they had left the protective barrier around Din's shelter. Or rather, because _he_ had convinced her to get out, thus placing both of them in danger.

"That was my fault." Zeil said. "It was me who told you that we should go out. If only I had known, I…"

"It's not your fault." Din interrupted him. "I should have told you from the beginning. I just didn't want you to be in danger if you knew my secret."

"Well, that I can understand, yet…" Zeil took a time before continuing. "If you had told me what was going on, I'd had been more careful."

"There's no need to worry about that now." Din assured him. "Zeil… there's something else I'd like to give you."

Din closed her eyes and placed her hands together once more. Some sort of red energy appeared between her hands, focused, until it began taking shape. A few seconds later, the red light dimmed down, and a golden bracelet appeared in her hands. Din approached Zeil, took his hand, and without asking, she put the bracelet on it. Taking a good look at it, Zeil could see it had a large, red gem, which bore the symbol of the Goddess of Power. And for some reason, there seemed to be some sort of fire burning inside of it.

"In the case that… something happens to me… this will protect you." She said.

"What's this?" Zeil asked.

"I've imbued this bracelet with a portion of my power." Din explained. "In the case you had to face against Onox, this is one of the few things that can actually hurt him."

"But we're safe here, aren't we? The magical barrier protects us, they can't come in here."

"That's where you're wrong, little runt." A deep and evil voice echoed around the place.

Zeil and Din became alarmed, especially the latter. She knew that voice perfectly, it couldn't be anyone else but…

"No… it can't be him."

Just a couple of seconds later, he appeared before them, in a burst of purple fire. The General of Darkness himself, just as Din remembered him. This guy should stand at least two and a half meters tall, and wearing a very heavy golden armor. He had a long, pointy helmet, which gave him an even more intimidating appearance by hiding his face almost completely, except for the lower half, leaving his mouth in the open. Zeil instinctively placed himself before Din to protect her.

"I finally found you, Miss Oracle of the Seasons." Was the first thing he said, as he walked towards them. Every step he gave shook the earth around him. "You were pretty smart, to have escaped from me for so long. You have no idea how many troubles you've caused me."

"How is this possible?! There was no way someone like you could have passed through the magical barrier!" Din exclaimed.

"I'm afraid you're mistaken." Onox replied. "I couldn't pass through it _by myself_. So I needed some help to do that. And I have to thank your little friend here for it." He pointed at Zeil.

"Me? What do I have to do with this?"

"I knew I couldn't capture Din as long as she were within the barrier's limits." Onox explained. "But, thanks to you, I was able to bypass that little obstacle. I just needed to have a little portion of my spirit to enter, and once it was inside the barrier, getting in here would be a piece of cake. Allow me to thank you for your assistance, Prince Zeil." – He bowed in a mocking way.

"You still haven't answered me, bastard." Zeil snapped back. "Exactly, what do I have to do with anything?"

"Didn't you notice? Those arrows my henchmen fired at you?" Onox asked. "They were no ordinary arrows. You might haven't noticed, but if you escaped alive, I ordered them not to aim to kill. Just one arrow, and once you passed through the barrier…"

Zeil's face became pale at this. So that was why the arrow vanished when Din pulled it out. Everything made sense now: it was true, Onox had used him to bypass the magical protection and get to Din. He couldn't believe it; now she was in danger because of him.

"Now, if you were so kind to step aside…" Onox stood up again. "The lady is coming with me."

"Over my dead body." Zeil pulled out his sword and charged at Onox.

"Zeil, don't!" Din cried out.

Too late, Zeil had already charged at Onox, not caring that he at least doubled him in size. Onox didn't bother to move, he just smirked smugly while the prince tried to strike him with his sword, but it was a futile attempt. Whatever was the material his armor was made of, it was impenetrable for a steel weapon, as the strokes just bounced off without causing so much of a dent or scratch. Finally, Onox got tired of the game.

"Is that all you've got? What a dissapointment."

And just when Zeil jumped on him to deliver a strike, Onox caught the sword in mid-air with a single hand. One single wrist movement, and the blade broke in two like glass. Zeil barely had one second to experience the disbelief, since with his other hand, Onox created a mini-tornado, which then turned into a giant one that sent the prince flying through the air. And it didn't stop there, the tornado grew even larger, dragging everything around itself and even uprooting the trees and plants nearby, except for Din's house, apparently doing it just for kicks and to show off. And before Zeil fell to the floor again, Onox caught Zeil by the neck.

"You're a meddlesome kid." Onox said, facing him up close. "I better get rid of you while I still can."

And without a second thought, he punched Zeil with his other hand, sending him flying towards Din's tree. The prince slammed backwards with the trunk, and slumped on the ground, unconscious.

"ZEIL!" The redhead cried out as she rushed forward to make sure he was alright. She barely could have a second of relief upon seeing that he was still breathing, until Onox's shadow towered over her, blocking the moonlight. "Stop it, that's enough!" Din stood up with her arms wide open to shield Zeil. "I'll do whatever you ask, but… don't hurt him, please."

"Will you come quietly, then?" Onox asked.

"I… yes… I will. But please don't hurt Zeil."

"Alright, this makes things easier for me." Onox said. "We're leaving now."

"Wait. Just one more thing."

Din opened wide her arms, spreading a bit of her energy around. Onox at first thought she might be trying something, but after a moment, he realized that wasn't the case. All she did was dispelling the magical barrier surrounding the shekter. Obviously she was doing this so as to not to leave Zeil locked up inside so he could be found (she was certain that his friends would come to find him, since he hadn't returned to the castle). Up next, she voluntarily turned herself in, and Onox grabbed her with his large hand.

 _"Zeil… please forgive me…"_ She thought before they vanished, leaving behing just a small tear pouring out of her eye as a trail.

 ** _A couple of hours later…_**

Link and Princess Zelda were making their way through the forest, notably in a hurry and worried. During the incident at the castle town, Zelda and her mother had felt up close dark energies, and to add up to their worries, Zeil hadn't returned to the castle. They weren't sure what was going on, but they were certain it was something bad. Despite the queen's objections, they convinced her to let them both investigate themselves, partly because they needed to locate Zeil.

"Zelda, are you sure you know where we're going?" Link asked.

"Of course." Zelda replied. "I can't sense the evil energy anymore, but there's still a remnant trace at the place where it vanished. We can't be too far now."

A few minutes, the couple reached the clearing where Din's shelter was located, the entire place had been trashed, as if a tornado had passed over there (which was exactly what had happened). Zelda saw her brother unconscious, and immediately rushed to his side.

"Zeil! Zeil, brother, please answer me!" She yelled, shaking him as she tried to wake him up.

"C'mon, buddy, get up, don't go dying on us now." Link said, palming on his face. He finally responded.

"Ah… ouch, it hurts…" Zeil rubbed his stomach, exactly where Onox had punched him. "Link… Sis… it's you guys."

"Zeil, tell us what happened here. It looks as if a tornado trashed this place." Zelda guessed.

"That guy… took her…" Zeil said, his voice faltering a bit.

"Took her? Who?" Link asked.

"Din… that General of Darkness… kidnapped her…"

"What did you say? General of Darkness?"

"We'll have time to explain later." Zelda said. "Link, help me out, we need to take him back to the castle."

They both helped Zeil get back on his feet, each one of them holding him below the armpit, and walked together out of there. Yes, there would be plenty of time to explain what was going on. For now, Zeil's thoughts were only focused on two things: first, to think on how to find and defeat Onox, and second (and more important), how to rescue Din. She had been captured because of him, and he was planning to fix that himself.

* * *

 ** _Hyrule Castle, two days after…_**

It took a while before Zeil had recovered enough to talk about the incident in the woods and Din's dissapearance (which wasn't easy, as he felt guilty about it) so they could retell the situation to Queen Selena. Link and Zelda decided to be the ones to tell her, as the prince didn't exactly feel in the mood to talk. The couple relayed on the monarch the situation with all the details they knew about Din, and Onox. Outside, the effects were alredy becoming noticeable, as several times a day the seasons would change at random. And the people was getting scared and confused. The queen finally decided to come out ant tell them what she knew.

"Din, that is, the Oracle of the Seasons, is the guardian of the essences of nature." The queen explained. "For years, the Oracles have been close allies to our royal family. We have maintained a close relationship with them for many generations."

"Does that mean you already knew of her, Mother?" Zelda asked. "You knew who she really was?"

"Indeed." The queen replied. "As a matter of fact, I had already taken the liberty of sending her an invitation for the coming-of-age ceremony. However, as I already knew that someone was after her, I suggested her that she should come disguised as a simple dancer, for her own protection."

"Which explains many things." Link said. "Problem is, somehow, that Onox guy saw through her disguise."

"How are we going to face him?" Zelda asked.

"Onox is known as the General of Darkness for good reason." The queen said. "Ordinary weapons and magic will not afflict him. In cases like this, we have no other choice."

"Do you mean… the Sacred Weapons?" Zelda asked. "The Master Sword, and the Bow of Light?"

"The tradition dictates this weapons cannot be removed from their resting places, except on special ceremonies." The queen continued. "Nevertheless, with out current situation, with the whole kingdom in danger, we'll have to make an exception. The Sacred Weapons should be able to slay even a General of Darkness. We'll have to remove the protective seals so you can access them."

"It's best that we tell Zeil." Link said. "I don't think he'll like to miss this out."

"I'll tell him." Zelda volunteered.

The princess ran upstairs towards her twin brother's chambers. Upon reaching the door, she knocked to call him out.

"Zeil? Zeil, open the door we need to talk." No response. "Zeil, come on now, this is important. Open the door." Once again, no response. Zelda finally decided to enter herself. "Zeil, this is not the time to…"

The princess was left speechless when she saw her brother was not in the room. And there was a madeshift, bedsheet rope tied to one of the bedposts, leading directly to the window. Zelda ran off to see and looked down to see what had happened: Climbing down the wall, he could have easily jumped towards the castle's outer wall and dodge the guards to escape. It didn't take a genius to deduce where her brother had gone: he surely had ran off to try and rescue Din on his own.

" _That fool…"_ Zelda thought. She went back downstairs to tell her mother and Link.

As if it wasn't enough that outside the seasons were all crazy, now it turned out that Zeil had decided to run off on his own, adding up to the worries of his sister and mother. Since they had to act quickly, Queen Selena led the two teenagers to a secret chamber underneath the castle, a place where the most important treasures of the royal family were stored, including the sacred weapons they had used for generations to fight the forces of evil. The chamber was protected by a large and heavy door with a magical seal that only members of the royal family could open. Once inside, they passed through a very long hallway, seeing along the way a lot of treasures, relics and whatnot. At the very end, they found what they were looking for.

On a stone pedestal there was a long sword, with the symbol of the Triforce carved in the blade. The hilt was blue, adorned with a golden rhomboidal gem. On the wall, locked inside what looked like a crystal urn, there was a huge bow that seemed made of pure gold and silver, which also irradiated a golden light around itself. It wasn't held in place by anything, rather, it looked like it floated inside the urn. Queen Selena went towards it, and upon touching it, the urn vanished. The bow fell on her hands, and she then presented it to her daughter.

"Zelda, I know you have never used this before, but I have faith that you can harness its power." The Queen said.

"Me, Mother?"

"Your magical abilities have grown a lot stronger in the past few months, also, you are the best archer in the castle." The queen said.

"Perhaps, but… I've always done it with regular bows." Zelda said.

"But you do know how to use this one, don't you?"

"Only what I read in the scrolls." Zelda replied. "I need to channel my power through the bow so it will take the form of a Light Arrow. The bow's sacred energy will then power it up, allowing it to pierce through the defenses of the darkness."

"That's right." The queen smiled. It was clear that she had complete believed in her daughter's skills. She then turned towards Link. "As for you, Link, you will be the one to wield the Master Sword."

"Are you sure, Your Majesty? I mean, as far as I know, only members of the royal family can…"

"In the case of the Master Sword, those who descend directly from the knights who fought in the war to protect Hyrule from the darkness, have the right to wield it in times of need." The queen interrupted him. "Link, you are the last descendant of this line, thus, you are the only one I can delegate this important task."

"Are you joking, Your Majesty?" Link was quite surprised. That couldn't be true, but the queen assured him that she wasn't kidding. He had no idea of this, and it seemed that Zelda apparently didn't either.

"Is it true, Mother?" Zelda asked, looking at Link, who had yet to get over his surprise.

"It was really hard to track down your lineage. We were starting to believe that the bloodlines of the ancient knights had completely extinguished. When you appeared, in that tournament so many years ago, I knew we had to keep you safe."

"How could you know that?" Link asked, still intrigued.

"That birthmark on your left hand? That's the real proof of your lineage, the mark of the heroes of old."

Link knew what she talked about. He removed his left glove, and stared at the mark on the back of his hand. He had always had it since he could remember, but it was the strangest birthmark he had ever seen. No matter how hard he tried, he could never remove it, so he just let it be and took to wear gloves to cover them it up. He and Zelda exchanged looks, this explained a lot of things. Like, for instance, the special treatment he always received above the others. Even though the queen was kind to everyone in general, she was a lot more protective of Link, treating him with great familiarity and affection comparable to that of a mother. Even though Link had wanted to enter the Royal Guard on his own will, the boy never had any idea of his own importance. Nevertheless, this revelation didn't change a thing. He always had made his duty to protect his land, and he'd keep on doing it on hiw own volition. Finally, having assimilated everything, and having clear what he had to do, he grabbed the legendary sword with both hands, and started pulling hard to remove it from the pedestal. The sword's blade briefly glew with a bright light, thus indicating that it was accepting him as its rightful wielder.

"You better get going now." The queen said. "With luck, you might catch up with Zeil on your way."

"What will you do in the time being, Mother?" Zelda asked.

"I have no power over the forces of nature, but I'll try to contain them as much as I can for now."

"We need to find Onox. Any idea on where he could be?" Link asked.

"The greatest energy concentration seems to come from the mountains northwest of here." The queen said. Zelda started thinking, and suddenly, it struck her.

"The Temple of Seasons!" She said. "Of course, it makes sense. He captures the Oracle of Seasons, and the energy of the nature mostly concentrates on that place. That would increase its power even more."

"You're right, Onox must be there." Link agreed. "And if that's the case, Zeil will go there too."

"Then there's nothing else to say." Zelda concluded. "We're going immediately."

With their weapons in hand, the two teenagers went towards the stables to get their horses and departed for the Temple of Seasons. Queen Selena gazed from the balcony how they rode away. She placed her hands on her chest, praying to the heavens for them to come back safely.

"Goddesses, please give them strength… and protect them."

* * *

 ** _Meanwhile, somewhere else…_**

Zeil had gone off on his own, intending to rescue Din by himself. A couple of hours later, while he was busy moping alone in his room, something happened and prompted him to take action. When he was wishing he hadn't endangered Din, or having been stronger to protect her, the bracelet she had given him just moments before Onox took her began irradiating a strange glow, and some sort of golden flame came out of it. Then it flew out of his room, towards the horizon, or more specifically, the Northwestern Mountains. And then he remembered: that was were the Temple of Seasons was located. If Onox sought to create havoc with the stations, the logical decision was to go to that particular place. He knew exactly what he had to do, so immediately, without warning, he snuck out through the window using the bedsheets as a madeshift climbing rope. Before departing, he got his steed from the stables, and rode off northwest.

As he came closer to the Temple, the seasons seemed to get more and more against him. In fact, he reached a point where he couldn't continue any further on horseback: the cold winter wind was just too strong, and the only path was through a very thin rocky bridge over a large ravine. The bridge was barely wide enough to pass through on foot, and from the looks of it, it was questionable that it could withstand the combined weight of himself and his mount. The gap was too wide to try and jump over it, besides, he had the wind blowing against him. Determined to move forward, much to his chagrin Zeil had to leave his horse tied next to the bridge, hoping that he could come back for him later. As soon as he crossed the gap, he was ambushed by four dark knights, each wielding a different weapon: An axe, a spear, a sword and a mace. Zeil, of course, was already expecting this, so he showed no sign of surprise at their sudden appearance.

"You're in the domain of the General of Darkness." The one carrying the axe spoke first.

"Stay away if you value your life." The one with the sword added.

"Just try me." Zeil answered, as he drew his own sword.

Being at a numerical disadvantage, Zeil didn't rush to attack them first. Instead, he maintained a defensive, constantly blocking and dodging, trying to stay out of the reach of their strokes. Using brute strength was pointless, so the prince's intention was to try and get them to defeat amongst themselves. He managed to partially succeed, by intentionally placing himself in between the ones wielding the spear and the mace, and provoking them into attacking at the same time. His strategy worked, they both charged at him while screaming, and a second later, he rolled sideways to dodge, causing the spear knight to pierce through his comrade's chest, while the mace knight crushed his head with a hard strike. Half the threat eliminated, Zeil focused his attention on the axe knight. The weapon's weight made his movements somewhat sluggish, which Zeil took advantage of to land strikes with his sword. Even so, his armor protected him almost fully, so he had to aim for the only relatively exposed spot. Reminding himself that they weren't even humans, and thus he didn't have to feel bad for killing them, Zeil took a defensive stance and waited; when the dark knight raised his axe, Zeil delivered a thrust right in between the eyes. The greatest advantage of using a two-handed longsword, was definitely its reach, which enabled him to stab him before he could strike. The axe knight dropped dead on the ground, leaving only one to go, the sword knight.

"Alright, it's just you and me now."

"With me, it's more than enough." The knight answered, switching the sword from one hand to the other, and twirling it as if he tried to intimidate Zeil. It was about the same size as the prince's sword, yet he could wield it with a single hand. Nevertheless, it didn't work. Zeil just tightened the grip of his own sword.

Using his agility and cunning he had been able to make short work of the others easily, but the last one was much smarter and more skilled than his fallen comrades. He left no openings in his defense, and forced Zeil into dodging and blocking without a chance to counterattack. At one point, when they locked blades and began pushing forward, the prince had to press using the whole strength of his arms, legs and body just to stand firm on his ground. But the knight used his free hand, sending Zeil flying backwards with a punch. While he lied on the ground, the knight attempted to cut him in half, but the prince rolled sideways to evade it lado para evitarlo. The sword did manage to stab the edge of his cape, leaving him unable to get out, and the knight then took the chance to try and stomp him. Zeil had to pull really hard to rip the cape and free himself, just in the nick of time to dodge the knight's foot, and immediately wielded his sword again to get back on the fight, taking advantage of the knight having released his own sword for a while. He managed to wound him by stabbing him in one hand, but still having the other to wield, the swordfighting quickly resumed. Even with a single hand, the knight surpassed him in strength by far, and having to face him directly would leave him at a serious disadvantage.

"Give it up, kid. You have no chance." The dark knight warned him.

"Sorry, I'm just too stubborn for that." Zeil snarked back.

Trying to think of a way to get rid of him, Zeil saw above his shoulder a large boulder behind him, and got an idea. He kept fighting for a while, and let himself get pushed towards the rock, pretending to have been knocked out. That way, when the dark knight thought he had just won the fight, he rushed to deliver the killing blow, but Zeil stepped aside, causing him to get his sword stuck in the boulder. As he tried to pull it out, the prince took his chance and delivered a slash straight for the knight's neck, beheading him. The headless body dropped down motionless, as the severed head rolled a few meters close by. He was finally free to continue.

"Hang in there, Din. I'll rescue you whatever it takes." He vowed to himself as he continued to run through the path towards the temple. He could see it in the distance, it was atop a high hill, and covered in snow due to the season chaos Onox was unleashing. Once he arrived, he would rescue Din, and nobody would stop him.

Or that was what he was hoping, at least. A while later, he came across a thick rocky pass, with barely enough room to walk through. Zeil looked both ways, the place looked just perfect for another ambush, and something inside him told him that was exactly what awaited him in there. Yet at the end of the day, he had not time to reflect on that, and if that was the shortest way to the temple, he'd have to take his chances and pass through there.

Just as he expected, as soon as he set foot into the canyon, from above several of Onox's henchmen started dropping huge boulders on him, trying to crush him or at least block his path. At least two times he had to stop on his tracks to avoid being crushed, and a particularily big boulder forced him to climb over to continue forward. He heard a rumbling sound behind, and he realized that the rocky walls were so eroded, the entrance had collapsed and he couldn't go back where he came from. Well, that only left him one way, to move forward. He saw the cronies guarding de exit were trying to provoke a similar avalanche to seal the other exit and thus leave him trapped in there. Instinctively, he ran off as he had never done before, and before he reached the exit, he made a huge jump, just when the rocks fell right behind him, sealing the passage through the canyon.

"Nice try, Onox, but it's going to take a lot more than that to stop me." Zeil muttered, relieved for the moment.

He'd have time to find a way back later, but for now, his main goal was to reach the Temple of Seasons. And nothing Onox did would stop him. Nothing at all.

* * *

 ** _Meanwhile, a little behind on the path…_**

Link and Zelda kept on riding through the path towards the temple as fast as they could, while the cold winds raged more and more, and the snow piling up made their advance on horseback much harder. At this point, they had finally reached the thin strone bridge above the ravine, where they found Zeil's steed, still awaiting for his rider to come back. Realizing they would have to leave their mounts behind, they tied them along with Zeil's so they could keep him company, and went straight to cross the bridge.

"I'll go first to make sure it's safe." Link said. "If it doesn't crumble under my weight, then you can cross too."

"Alright."

Link took a deep breath before crossing the bridge to make sure it would hold on. The key was looking ahead, not down. The cold made it a bit slippery, so he couldn't cross it running, he had to watch his step. However, he kept going forward nonstop, and he reached the other side safelu. Letting out a sigh of relief, he immediately turned to Zelda.

"Alright, your turn." He said.

Zelda nodded, however, she couldn't help but look the ravine down below before giving her first step. She gulped down and hesitated for a bit, but upon reminding herself that the lifes of her brother and Din, as well as everyone in the kingdwom, she pressed her hands against her chest and gathered up courage, facing her fear. Without realizing, however, she started walking a little too fast, in trying to cross as fast as possible, and in doing so, when she was about to reach the other side, she had a misstep and almost slipped.

"Aahh!"

"Look out!" Link shouted, stretching out his arm and getting a hold of her before she fell. He pulled her back a tad brusquely, as a reflex action, but he got her back to safety.

"Sorry, I should have been more careful." Zelda apologized. "You saved my life, thank you."

"Don't worry, that's what I'm here for." Link smiled.

They both took a look to their surroundings, finding the weapons and armors of the dark knights who had attacked Zeil when he passed through there.

"Looks like these guys weren't very lucky." Link said.

"My brother knows how to deal with these threats when he wants to." Zelda acknowledged.

"Well, that means he's cleared up the path for us." Link added. "Let's move on, there's no time to lose."

They kept moving forward, hoping not to run into any more dificulties. However, they quickly found the main road blocked, the rocky canyon had caved in and they couldn't pass through, so they had no choice but to take a detour. They took a path through the nearby forest por el bosque cercano, alert to any events, they knew Onox's henchmen were lurking left and right waiting for any intruders to trespass. And so it was, as soon as they reached a clearing area, a rain of arrows forced them to take cover behind the trees. Link took a peek when they ceased firing for a while, and he could see clearly a couple of them. They were half-dark knights, half-horse hybrids, that is, "dark centaurs", in a manner of speech. They were armed with crossbows, and they had ceased the fire just to reload their weapons.

"I'll distract them. You use the Bow of Light to finish them off." Link whispered.

"Be careful." Zelda readied her bow.

Link ran towards another tree, as the centaurs resumed their attack. They had pretty good aim, he had to admit, but not good enough to hit him. Zelda snuck in between some bushes trying to find a blind spot to attack, as she readied a Light Arrow. Link was still acting as a decoy, to keep the centaurs' attention on him. A few minutes later, the princess was in position, she focused her powers on her bow and aimed to the closest one, who had his turned back on her at the moment. The sacred arrow materialized itself on the bow, becoming solid, and Zelda released it.

 ** _WHOOOOOOOOOSHH! THOK! THOK! THOK!_** The arrow hit right in the middle of the centaur's back, piercing through its armor like cardboard. Even more, the arrow actually pierced through him and kept going forward a considerable distance, doing the same to the others who were unlucky enough to be in its path. Leaving a trail of light on each place the arrow hit a target, each one of them vanished in a burst of light mixed with black smoke. That was a great advantage, a single arrow was enough to fell several of them.

Taking advantage of the initial shock, Link left his hideout, covering himself with the shield as a precaution, and drew the Master Sword. He stabbed in the chest one of the still remaining centaurs, as the sword also had the same sacred power allowing him to pierce through the dark armors. As they were attacked at point-blank range, the centaurs were unable to reload and aim in time for a counter-attack, and Link quickly made short work of them. The last one standing tried to turn around and run away, but Zelda foresaw his intentions.

"Oh, no you don't." She said as she aimed, and fired another Light Arrow.

The unlucky centaur let out a shriek of pain upon being pierced by the arrow, and vanished without a trace just like the others. Despite the distance he had managed to reach and being in the middle of the woods, it didn't do any good to him, there was no doubt about why Queen Selena had said her daughter was "the best archer ". Once the opposition had been eradicated, the couple kept on going forward.

"We're gonna take longer this way." Link said.

"It's the shortest route, since the pass through the canyon is blocked." Zelda replied.

"These cold winds just get worse every time."

"You don't like the cold?" Zelda asked.

"Not to this extreme." Link answered. "This is way too much."

"That's odd, I never heard you complain in the winters you've spent with us." The princess commented, unsure as to why.

"That's different." Link replied. "The castle's always warm and homely… and there's good company."

"Of course, you're always playing with my brother."

"You know what I mean." Link said. "It's you who warms up those winter months."

Zelda smiled, and couldn't help but blush a little. It was strange for her that after knowing each other for so long, none of them still had the courage to speak their feelings directly. Instead, they were content with throwing each other plenty of indirects that were very direct. They weren't sure if it was due to being shy, or because they didn't need to speak aloud. Perhaps deep down they assumed that each one knew what the other felt, and thus they didn't judge it as necessary. Nevertheless, a part of Zelda considered that it was child's behavior. And since there was the fact that her coming-of-age ceremony was approaching, it was time to stop playing around and take the relationship more seriously, as an adult woman. After all, she had been planning a future by Link's side for a very, very long time.

Leaving those thoughts aside for the time being, Zelda once again focused on the matter at hand. They had to hurry in order to get to the Temple of Seasons to help Zeil. Even if he could reach Onox by himself, they doubted that in his current conditions he could fight against the General. They needed those sacred weapons to slay him, save Din, and the kingdom.

* * *

 ** _A while later…_**

At long last, after having to fight his way through many obstacles and enemies trying to stop him, Zeil finally reached his goal. He gazed at the imposing structure before him: the Temple of Seasons was atop the highest hill of the mountain range, and the entrance was at the end of a very long stairway. Well, this was the final leg of the journey, so without wasting a second, he started going up, determined to rescue Din and pay Onox back in full on what he deserved. To his surprise, he found no more opposition as he ran up the stairs, which was strange considering everything that had happened on the way there. But the important thing was that he had arrived, there was no turning back now.

"ONOX!" He yelled as soon as he set foot inside the temple. "I KNOW YOU'RE HERE, YOU BASTARD, COME OUT AND FACE ME!"

"Hehehehehe…" Onox laugh echoed across the temple. "Impressive. I really didn't think you'd have the luck or skill to get to this place."

"Stop fooling around. Come out and face me at once." Zeil demanded.

"Do you really believe that you stand a chance against me? Against the General of Darkness himself?!"

"I couldn't care less for your title of General." Zeil said defiantly. "If you don't have the guts to face me, you're nothing but a coward hiding in the shadows."

"You'll pay dearly for your arrogance, young prince." Onox said. "But since you have such great death wishes, so be it, I'll face you and give you the honor of dying by my hand."

In the middle of the room, a purple smoke formed itself, and just a second later, Onox appeared before Zeil, just as he remembered him.

"Where's Din?" Zeil asked, pointing his sword at him. "What have you done to her?"

"Cálm down. If you're so worried, let me assure you, she's safe." Onox said. "After all, I need her alive to control the energy of this temple."

"Why you… you…" Zeil just couldn't find a word to describe Onox. All he knew, was that he was going to cut him down for it. "¡Aaaaarghhh!"

There was no point in talking anymore, Zeil charged to attack him furiously. Onox pulled out from nowhere a huge axe to fight him back, limiting himself just to block without a hitch every single strike the young prince delivered, just testing his abilities. The general had to admit, despite his short age, the kid showed great sword skills, and his guts seemed to give him strength. Even so, it could be seen from afar that Onox was just toying with him, by just giving him a small change to prove himself.

"I'LL KILL YOU!" Zeil shouted, raising his sword to deliver a strike to Onox's head with all his strength.

 ** _CRACK! CLANG!_** Just when the sword struck Onox's head, it broke in two, and the tip was sent spinning through the air. Whatever that armor was made of, obviously ordinary weapons couldn't pierce it. Zeil stared at his broken sword in horror, and then Onox laughing loudly at his misfortune.

"You're an idiot, Prince Zeil. Didn't our last encounter teach you anything? Don't you see why I'm called the General of Darkness? My armor is imbued with the powers of darkness itself. Did you seriously thought that an ordinary sword could harm me?"

"I was hoping that it would." Zeil replied sarcastically, stepping back and throwing his sword aside, after all, it wouldn't help him anymore.

"Too bad. Had you chosen not to challenge me, you could have lived a little longer." Onox declared. "Now, it's time to finish this."

Onox raised his axe, ready to deliver the finishing blow. Zeil, for some reason, even feeling that his end was nigh, touched the bracelet Din had given him before Onox captured her, recalling her words: _"In case something happens to me, this will protect you."_

"Din… please help me…" He whispered as he awaited for the worst.

"This is your end!" Onox shouded as he was about to swing his heavy axe on top of Zeil.

In that very instant, as if answering to Zeil's call for help, a radiant light glew in the bracelet's gem, creating some sort of fire barrier that stopped the axe dead on the spot. Zeil took a few moments ro realize what had just happened, or rather, what had NOT happened, that is, that Onox didn't kill him. The energy the bracelet irradiated was red-hot, yet for some reasond he didn't feel as if it burned him at all.

"WHAT?!" Onox seemed incredulous at what just had happened. Next, the fire barrier acted on its own and fired a burst that threw Onox aways several feet backwards.

"What's going on?"

Zeil was still confused, nevertheless, he was sure about something: Din wasn't lying upon saying that it would protect him. Right in that moment, the barrier's energy started moving by itself again, circling around Zeil, until it started concentrating on a small sphere in front of his eyes. The fire was beautiful, it was a kind of flame he had never seen before, alternating between ruby red and golden, it was amazing. The sphere started changing shape, becoming longer and slimmer. The flames died out slowly, making way for something Zeil never thought he'd see.

It was the most splendid sword Zeil had ever seen in his entire life. The hilt seemed to be made of pure ruby and gold, and the crossguards formed prominences that somehow resembled the wings of a fire bird. In the center, it had a gem identical to the one of the bracelet, complete with the symbol of the Goddess of Power. In the very edge of the blade, which was even longer than the sword he had brought along, it had an oval ruby and a golden tip that also looked like a burning flame. The sword was hovered before him, waiting for him to wield it. Somewhat hesitant, Zeil reached out with his hands for the hilt, still overwhelmed by the weapon's beauty, but upon remembering what he had come to do, he got a hold of it.

It was an indescriptible sensation. The sword's blade started burning in golden flames, while Zeil felt a powerful energy flowing across his entire body. All of a sudden, he felt as if he had the strength of a hundred men, to the point the sword itself, even though it had to be a lot heavier due to its size and jewels, actually felt as light as a feather, he could wield it with a single hand without problems.

"Urgh…" Onox was just getting back on his feet after the initial impact, and then he saw Zeil wielding his new sword, understanding what just had happened. "Very smart from Din. She wasn't kidding about having left you a bit of her power. But that doesn't change a thing."

"You're wrong, this changes everything." Zeil replied. "I understand now. Din didn't just give me this to protect me from you. She gave it to me because she expected me to be able to protect her. She trusted me. And I'm not planning on letting her down."

Wielding his new flaming sword, the prince charged at Onox again, his strength and vigor renewed and multiplied a hundredfold. The General of Darkness tried to protect himself, but now Zeil seemed like a completely diferent opponent. With every sword swing, the blade left a trail of golden flames behind. Furthermore, over the course of the combat, Zeil discovered that the sword could do even more than that. Delivering a slash with the tip scratching across the floor, he created a flaming wall that stopped Onox dead on his tracks when he tried to attack him; he apparently was afraid of this sacred fire. Focusing energy on the tip, he shot a fireball that impacted on the hand holding the axe and caused him to lose it, leaving a huge burn mark on it. When Onox tried to get it back, instinctively, Zeil shot another fireball, much stronger this time, and it literally incinerated the axe in a burst of flames, reducing it to just a pile of ash. Onox stared at him furiously.

"Don't think you've beaten me yet, little prince."

Just as he did with the axe before, Onox summoned a large spiked ball with a heavy chain. He started swinging it over his head, extending the chain more and more to get to Zeil, it almost seemed infinite, because at first it didn't seem THAT long. Even so, aside from breaking a few pillars and leave some cracks on the floor, it didn't do a thing. Surprisingly, the temple didn't crumble down with the pillars breaking. Zeil guessed that the magical energy would most likely be what kept it standing. Evidently, what Onox sought was to keep Zeil away from him, and the prince, seeing that he couldn't get close enough for a melee attack, tried to attack him shooting fireballs with his sword. It seemed that the bigger the distance, the less effective they were, or perhaps it was because Zeil had no time to focus as much energy to launch a more powerful one. Finally, in a risky move, the prince ran in a straight line with the sword extended, using the boost from the run do deliver a horizontal slash at Onox's stomach. The General managed to step back just enough to evade the fatal attack, but the sword's tip still managed to cut him through the armor.

"Argh!" He shrieked in pain as he stepped back.

The sword had managed to touch his flesh directly, making a cut with a burn. Zeil managed to catch a glimpse that his blood wasn't red, but rather purplish, maybe because it was too tainted by the darkness. The wound closed up and healed in a few seconds, however, Zeil had already seen that Onox was not as invulnerable as he tried to make believe. With that in mind, Zeil kept pressing on with his attack, while the General of Darkness tried to keep away from the sword and the fire as much as he could.

"Had enough yet?" Zeil asked, as he had him cornered.

"You wish. Let's see what you do with this."

In that very instant, something descended from the ceeling. It was a very large blue crystal, and Onox held it as if it was a madeshift shield. Upon looking closely, Zeil saw that there was something inside, or rather, SOMEONE…

"Din!" He shouted upon seeing her.

Trapped inside the crystal, Din had her eyes shut, she looked like she was in a deep sleep. She didn't seem to be hurt, and even though Onox had told him that "he needed her alive", he had no way to know if she was alright in there.

"Hold on, Din, I'll get you out of there." He said, raising his sword. But just as he tried to strike the crystal, in the very second that the sword's blade made contact, the crystal began generating powerful electric discharges. "AAAAAAAAARGHHHH!"

The discharge sent Zeil flying backwards. The crystal didn't even have a single scratch. The prince took a bit to recover from the shock, just to realize what just had happened.

"It's hopeless, there's no way you can destroy this crystal prison. And even if you did, you could end up killing her in the process." Onox mocked him. "The only way to free her, is by destroying me. Do you think you can do that?"

"That makes things simpler." Zeil replied.

Once again, Onox regained the upper hand, by playing dirty using Din as a living shield. Zeil cared little for the discharges, what he didn't want was hurting Din by accident. Onox got his chain and ball once again, trying to crush Zeil with it. The prince had no other choice but to stay away and shoot the fireballs at a distance, but Onox used Din to block them. For a moment Zeil almost had an attack upon realizing his mistake, only to feel relief when the crystal's energy dissipated the fireballs without leaving any trace. In any case, that didn't help in making the situation any better. How was he supposed to save Din when Onox was cowardly hiding behind her? How was he going to save her if he couldn't strike his foe?

The General of Darkness kept his ferocious attack, and every time Zeil tried to find an opening, he just had to use Din to cover it. The spiked ball kept him at bay, and even if he managed to get a little close, Onox just had to place Din in between them to get him to back off. Soon the floor all over the room was filled with cracks and holes. Not exactly knowing what he was doing, Zeil stabbed the sword on the floor and launched a fire blast underground using the cracks close to Onox. Fire erupted from them and caused Onox to lose his balance, and Zeil immediately took his chance to attack him again. Yet this advantage was just temporary, as he quickly recovered and was able to use Din again as a shield. Zeil had to step back, now knowing that he couldn't gain the same advantage twice.

As he dodged the spiked ball, Zeil started running in circles around Onox, the tip of his sword scratching on the floor, and he created a fire wall to try and get closer to his foe. He couldn't attack directly, but he could use the fire's heat to try and weaken him gradually. It was working, every time he had him closed in a smaller zone, and in doing so, he wasn't taking the risk of hurting Din. When he finally got him trapped in a very small circle, Zeil started to intensify the flames, making them burn hotter and stronger. Onox was starting to feel the heat.

"If you don't want to end roasted, now's a great time to give up." Zeil warned him.

"This is nothing!"

"Alright, you asked for it." Zeil replied, increasing the heat.

Zeil kept up increasing the flames, trying to get it as unbearable for Onox as he could. Finally, after a few minutes, the General collapsed with the intense heat. Zeil carefully approached him. His armor, once golden and bright, now had taken a darker shade, as a result of the sacred fire. The crystal where he had Din imprisoned was still floating close by. Zeil tapped him with the sword, as if checking if his was still alive. He had to be, since Din was still trapped. Should he take the chance to deliver the killing blow?

"Don't take this personally." He said, as he raised his sword, prepared to bury it into Onox's back.

"I don't."

Before he realized, Zeil was hanging upside down, as Onox held him by his ankle. The General of Darkness smartly made him believe he had won so he would let his guard down, and it worked wonders. Caught off guard, Zeil dropped his sword, while Onox cackled evilly, now that he literally had him in his hand.

"You really didn't think you could defeat me that easily, did you, child?" He mocked.

"You call _that_ easy?" Zeil replied sarcastically.

"Your persistence and guts have impressed me, little prince. As a gift, I'll finish you off quickly and with as little pain as possible." Onox then got an evil idea. "It's more… I'll give you the honor to die by your own sword. Then I'll keep it as a trophy."

Onox was about to get a hold of Zeil's sword, which to him was more like a knife. But something unexpected happened: once he grabbed the hilt, the sword suddenly caught on fire, and Onox became engulfed by the flames, letting go of Zeil while he cried out in pain. The sacred fire really hurt him, but it was much worse at point-blank range. It seemed, Din knew what she was doing, and she had ensured that Onox couldn't use Zeil's own sword against him. Meanwhile, Zeil tried to look around for something to get him out of the game at once. The spiked ball was out of the question, too heavy for him, but how about the chain?

A large portion of the apparently infinite chain was still spread around the floor. Zeil took it, realizing that, even though it was a little on the heavy side, he could still lift it by himself, and started using it to tie Onox. Two, three, four circles around his body, and then, two, three, four more circles around his head and neck. While the General was burning, Zeil started pulling as hard as he could, it seemed proper to choke him with his own chain. Onox finally dropped the sword and stopped burning, and the boy immediately went to retrieve it. When Onox tried to free himself, the prince took the chance and stabbed the sword holding the chain against the floor. Onox still struggled, trying to break free, but whatever material the chain was made of was too resistant, as it endured both the fire and Onox's physical strength. Furious, the General opened one of his hands and started summoning a mini-tornado, directing it upwards so it would fall on around him. The wind currents acted as mini-blades, allowing him to cut, slowly but surely, the links of the chain, until he finally broke free. He was so enraged that at the time he forgot to retake his shield (Din) and recklessly charged at Zeil. He retrieved his sword, and just as he evaded the charge, he hit him on the side of the head with the blunt side of the sword. This caused his helmet to turn around, and the blow itself served in getting him in a daze for a moment. Which Zeil, knowing it was now or never, while Onox tried to get his helmet back to normal, took the chance to sneak behid him, and focusing all his strength in a supreme effort, delivered a powerful thrust to Onox's back, burying the sword in him until the tip came out on the front, in the middle of his chest.

"Bleargh…" Onox began coughing and spitting blood. That same purple blood he had shown before when Zeil had managed to hurt him. The General of Darkness fell to his knees, as he held the wound on his chest, but for some reason he was smiling. Something weird, considering that Zeil had just inflicted on him a wound that would most certainly be fatal. "Hehehehe, ah hahahaha… BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!"

"What's so funny?" Zeil asked.

"Impressive… I'd never thought someone would… ever challenge me… or defeat me…"

"Save your breath, talking will only make the pain worse." Zeil said. "Why don't you just go to the other world at once?"

"Hehe… you might have beaten me this way… in that case… I'll have yo show you my frue form…"

"What?" Zeil became wary, what did he mean by "true form"?

"RAAAAAAAAARGHHH!"

Onox roared furiously, and started burning in a burst of purple flames, also firing beams of light around himself, and shaking the ground around himself even more violently. It seemed that not even the Temple of Seasons would be able to endure such an evil surge of energy, as it began crumbling down, and Zeil had no choice but to get the hell out of there, much to his chagrin leaving Din behind. As he ran downstairs, he saw something was starting to break through the temple's roof. Something gigantic, dark and evil.

The thing coming out of the temple first looked like a humongous, amorphous mass, although it slowly took a more defined form. Out came two huge bat-like wing, followed by two muscular gigantic arms, ending in three fingers with large, sharp talons. The face was that of a reptile, a lizard or a snake, or perhaps a hybrid of the two, scaly, with long, sharp teeth, and red, slitted eyes. On the upper part of his head there were two long horns like those of a bull, and a huge red, glowing gem in the middle of his forehead.

"TREMBLE BEFORE MY REAL POWER, THE POWER OF A DARK DRAGON!" The beast roared, and let out two jets of purple fire upwards to the air, and then a third one down below, exactly where the now (compared to him) diminutive Zeil was standing.

So this was Onox's true form, a dragon. If he had some doubts before about being able to defeat Onox, now he was fully sure of it. How was he supposed to kill a dragon?

Not far from there, Link and Zelda were approaching, they picked up the pace when Zelda told Link she could sense a huge surge of evil energy coming from the temple, and even before they arrived, they could spot in the sky the streams of purple fire the beast had breathed before. That could only mean bad news.

"Link, we have to hurry!" The princess cried out.

"You don't need to tell me that!" The boy replied.

"It's even worse than I thought." Zelda said. "We have to stop Onox whatever it takes. If this keeps up… there will be nothing left..."

The couple kept running, hurrying as fast as they could towards the source of all that evil power. The fate of not just the kingdom, but of the entire world, rested in their hands.

Meanwhile at the temple, or what was left of it, the dragon Onox had transformed into flapped his wings and took flight, attacking Zeil with purple fireballs, while the prince tried to counter them using his sword's own fireballs. It barely helped in holding off, since sometimes the dragon dove into the ground to try and crush him underneath his large claws, or perhaps even try and grab him to devour him alive. Being a small target actually helped, and he kept constantly on the move to avoid getting caught. Nevertheless, this cat and mouse game wasn't going anywhere, and he never imagined he would be fighting for his life against a fire-breathing dragon. All he knew about dragons came from books, and at that moment he regretted not having paid more attention to them. Perhaps Zelda would know how to deal with this.

"For the Goddesses… I wish my sister was here." He said. He regretted having tried to play hero, meddling with something he couldn't face himself.

When Onox was right on top of Zeil with his huge claws ready to crush him, the heavens answered to his prayer: a Light Arrow flew into his palm, causing him to roar in pain, and giving Zeil the time to get away. When he looked in the direction it came from, he could finally see who had saved him. Zelda and Link were racing towards him.

"Zeil!" The princess called out.

"You guys, I've never been so happy to see you." Zeil said in relief, as he ran off to meet up with his sister and his friend.

"Hey Zeil, where did you get that sword?" Link asked upon seeing the spending blade que Zeil was wielding.

"I'll explain later. For now, aren't those the Sacred Weapons?" Zeil replied.

"They are." Zelda confirmed. "Mother temporarily retired the protective seals so we could use them. She knew we would need them to defeat this abomination."

At the time, Onox finally recovered from the arrow shot, and spat a jet of purple fire against the trio. Zelda immediately created a magical barrier that seemed made of crystal to shield them.

"So, I'm guessing you guys have a plan?" Zeil asked.

"We need to create a distraction." Link said. "We need to keep Onox away from Zelda so she can use the Bow of Light to weaken him. Then, I can use the Master Sword to deliver the killing blow. I assume you can help me with your own sword?"

"Count on it." Zeil asked.

Onox began intensifying the heat of his flames, trying to force them out.

"Looks like Onox is getting angry." Zelda said. "Prepare to run at my call, I'll have to dissipate the barrier."

"Got it." Link nodded.

"Ready? One… two… THREE!"

The magical barrier exploded in a blinding flash, and the three teenagers immediately ran off to take their positions, keeping some distance so Onox couldn't attack the three of them at the same time. Link and Zeil placed themselves in front of, while Zelda went behind and aimed at him with the bow.

"Hey, ugly, look, I'm over here!" Zeil yelled, shooting fireballs with his sword, trying to aim at his face.

"No, come get me instead!" Link said, attacking the same way with the Master Sword, which had the power to fire sacred energy beams. "What's wrong, are you scared?"

Apparently, having turned into a dragon had caused Onox to lose his rational side somewhat, as he seemed to act more beast-like with every passing second. In fact, except for the occasional cry of "I'LL KILL YOU ALL!" he wasn't speaking coherently anymore, he just roared like the dragon he was, and seemed to give in to his primal instincts. Unsure as who to attack first, he launched his fire breath attack at Link, which the young knight easily dodged. Seeing that it didn't work, he began focusing dark energy to generate in his mouth a large purple fireball. He shot it at Zeil, but Link got in the way.

"Right back at you!" He yelled delivering a horizontal slash with the Master Sword.

With some effort, Link sent Onox's fireball back at him. The Master Sword had the power to repel evil energy, and since that fireball was imbued with dark magic, Link could use the sword to deflect it back. Onox seemed to become even more enraged, frustrated that his attacks hadn't caused any damage at all. Meanwhile, Zelda finished charging up enough energy for another Light Arrow, and fired, hitting right on the back.

The dragon roared in pain upon feeling the arrow. Unlike the centaurs, the dark magic protecting Onox was a lot more powerful, and thus a single arrow wouldn't be able to kill him or pierce through him. They'd need several arrows just to weaken him. Upon feeling the shot, Onox directed his attention towards the princess, who was getting another arrow ready.

"Don't get close to my sister!" Zeil yelled, creating a fire wall in front of Zelda to stop Onox's advance.

The sacred fire still had its effect. Zelda took the chance to get away and find another angle to shoot at him, still focusing her magical energy into the bow and keeping an eye on Onox. Once she had the arrow ready, once again she let it go, with such good aim it hit very close to the same place as the first one.

The trio was making progress, however, keeping in mind that old saying "a wounded beast is more dangerous than a healthy one", Onox became more erratic and unpredictable. It seemed that with every time they managed to hurt him, it only made him descend into becoming more feral and turned him more into a complete beast, since now he had stopped talking altogether. This however, only motivated our heroes to finish him off as soon as possible, first to prevent him from causing any more harm, and second because it was clear there wasn't a shred of humanity in him.

Upon receiving the third arrow, Onox once again turned his attention to Zelda, who this time had no chance to get away, thus she had to raise her magical barrier to protect herself. First he tried to burn her with his purple fire attack, with no result, so then he took to try and break the barrier with his own hands, that is, by striking it physically. The energy forming the barrier was solid, so this was a better way to attack it. Zelda was making an effort to keep it up, but it was starting to crack, and if she spent too much energy in keeping it up, she'd have nothing left to use the Light Arrows.

Taking advantage of the fact Onox was close to the ground, Zeil and Link climbed up his back using the dragon's tail as a stairway. It seemed that the dragon's scales were so hard, he didn't even feel when they walked up him, or maybe he was so focused on Zelda that he paid no attention to them. Whatever the case was, when they reached the back of his neck, the two boys sank their swords as hard as they could right on that zone. The Master Sword's sacred light and the sacred fire of Din's blade pierced through the dragon's skin, causing him an unbearable pain. He took to fly again, and Link and Zeil were forced to hold on for her lives with their swords, while Onox flew all over the place trying to shake them off. Zelda was finally able to lower her magical barrier, but now she had another problem. With Onox flying around in such an erratic manner it would be much harder to get a clear shot, and there was the risk of accidentally hitting Zeil or Link in the process. The princess stood firm, impatient but hopeful to have soon an opening for a good shot. She focused a lot more power in this arrow, determined to make this strike to leave Onox at Link and Zeil's mercy so they could finally kill him off.

"AWAY!" She cried out loudly, praying for the Goddesses to hit its intended target.

The arrow sank right into the dragon's chest, directly on the spot where his heart should be. The bestia slumped heavily on the ground, still alive, yet his forces seemed to have completely abandoned him. Still making an effort to get back on his feet, and looking again at Zelda, tried to breathe fire at her again, but instead of the usual and powerful stream, all he got was a small puff of purple smoke. He was almost beaten, all they had to do was delivering the final strike.

"Now, Link!" Zelda cried out. "Use the Master Sword to finish him off!"

"Got it!" Link yelled. He climbed up to Onox's head, the dragon couldn't do anything else. He raised the sword to stab it right on the gem he had in the middle of his eyes. "General Onox, your reign of terror ends here. Receive the divine punishment of the Master Sword! HYAAAAAAAHHHH!"

Link buried the sword right on Onox's forehead. The gem fragmented itself upon receiving the strike. Link and Zeil took that as their cue to get off of the dragon. The three teenagers came together, as they saw how in fragments of light, the dragon started to fall apart. It seemed like the Master Sword didn't just defeat him, it also made him regain his rational side, as he started talking again.

"Impressive…" Onox's voice echoed, strangely calm. "I acknowledge the powers you have… but don't think this is the end… You might have defeated me… but there are hundreds of dark beings like me… and they will continue where I left off… and someday… darkness will reign forever… Hehehehe… BWAHAHAHAHAHAHA!" And in a matter of seconds, he completely disintegrated, although his last laugh still echoed on our heroes' ears.

"When that day comes… we'll be here, to stand up to it…" Zelda assured.

"This guy was really stubborn, to the very end." Link commented.

"You said it." Zeil agreed. In that moment, he remembered something important. "I almost forgot, Din!"

They immediately ran upstairs back to the temple, or rather, its remains. The crystal where Din was trapped was still hovering in place. The three saw as it descended towards them, and right before it touched land, it shattered into millions of pieces, finally freeing the redhead, who landed right directly in Zeil's arms. The prince immediately touched her face and hair, and felt a great relief upon seeing she was still breathing. They had finally rescued her.

"Thank the goddeses Diosas." Zeil sighed. Right then, Din's eyelids shook slightly, and she slowly opened her eyes, to meet with Zeil's.

"Ahh… Zeil… is that you?"

"Yeah, it's me." Zeil smiled. "Are you alright?"

"I'm fine now." Din replied, although she still seemed exhausted. She got off of Zeil's arms. "I knew it, I was right about you."

"What do you mean?" Zeil asked.

"It's obvious. You have the sword in your hand. It means it accepted you, you're worthy."

"I'm worthy, of what?" Zeil didn't understand.

"Would you two care to explain what did we miss here?" Link asked.

"When we learned that Onox was after me, Queen Selena summoned me to Hyrule for my own protection." Din explained.

"We already know that, Mother told us." Zelda said.

"Well, the point is… I wanted to be prepared, in case something could happen. So I decided to leave a bit of my power, in case something went wrong, Zeil would be able to protect me."

"For all the good job I did." Zeil said, lowering his head in shame. "I couldn't stop Onox from capturing you."

"But you rescued me." Din insisted.

"In case you didn't notice, I didn't do it by myself. Link and Zelda… they were the ones who rescued me, if it weren't for them, I wouldn't have survived this."

"To give you some credit, you managed to hold off pretty good until we arrived." Link said.

"I concur." Zelda added. "Not anyone would have been able to fight against a General of Darkness for so long by himself."

"And what about the sword?" Zeil asked. "If Din hadn't given it to me, I wouldn't be here now."

"As I said, I gave it to you because you deserved it. And because I knew you'd come here to save me."

"How could you be so sure?" Zeil asked a little suspicious.

"I just knew, that's all." Din replied, getting dangerously close to his ear. "I believed in you."

Zeil blushed slightly. It was curious; in the short amount of time he had known Din, she apparently had come to know him better than himself. She knew what could happen, she knew what he would do, and based on that, all she did was trusting him. Zeil didn't want to imagine how things would have turned out had her faith in him been misplaced.

"Well, Onox is defeated, but what are we going to do with the season chaos he caused?" Link intervened.

"Not just that, the temple is trashed." Zeil added.

"Onox drained a lot of my energy to do all of this." Din said. "I'm not sure I have enough to rebuild it myself."

"I can help." Zelda offered. "I still have a lot of energy I can share with you."

"That would be great, thank you." Din said. "You two, please stay away. This will take some time."

The two girls remained on the center, while Link and Zeil walked downstairs. From below they could see how Zelda shared her power with Din. Next up, the redhead started floating, surrounding herself with that same, rainbow-like energy Zeil had seen her use before. The shards of the temple that had been blown away after Onox destroyed it upon transforming into his dragon form floated back into place, and the temple slowly rebuilt itself like a very large puzzle, not leaving any trace of what had happened. At the same time, in the sky, the winter colouds that surrounded the zone, making way for the summer sun as it was due.

Meanwhile, on the rest of the kingdom, the seasons finally ceased to change brusquely, the zones covered in snow melted away, the leafless trees became filled again with green and life, and everyone in the kingdom celebrated that the nightmare with the seasons finally came to an end, returning everything to normal.

Zelda and Din walked downstairs to meet up with Link and Zeil again. The two girls seemed to be quite drained, so the boys took it to help them: Link carried Zelda in his arms, while Zeil followed suit with Din.

"You don't have to do this." Din said. "I can still walk by myself."

"It's alright, I don't mind." Zeil replied. "You need to rest."

"And so do you, don't deny it."

"We can rest when we get back to the castle. Until then, please humor me, alright?"

Din let out a small giggle. Meanwhile, ahead of them, Link and Zelda also snickered at them.

"I'm assuming you don't mind carrying me, do you?" Zelda asked.

"Not in the least." Link replied.

"That's good, because I do feel a little tired." Zelda admitted.

"Aren't you saying that because you love being like this?"

"Does it bother you if I do?" She smiled.

"You know the answer to that." He replied in the same way.

It was finally over. They went back to pick up their mounts with no hurry, ready to return to the castle and take a well-earned break. After such an adventure, they didn't need anything else.

* * *

 ** _A few days later…_**

Even after everything that had happened, Queen Selena didn't suspend her children's coming-of-age ceremony. As a matter of fact, she considered, after what they had done to save the kingdrom from the threat of the General of Darkness, it was more of a reason to celebrate. Having faced against such a dark force and coming out victorious was the proof they weren't children, but real adults. Zelda thought it was a rather particular way to call it, although Zeil wasn't amused.

Despite all the time he had been practicing dancing for that moment, on the day of the ceremony the young prince refused to come out to the dance floor; even though there were many young ladies who wanted to get him to dance with them, he rejected them all. The reason, of course, was that he was waiting for his chosen partner to show up, that is, Din herself. He wondered what could she be doing, after all, she agreed to stay at the castle while she recovered from her exhaustion caused by having to restore the seasons to its normal course and rebuilding the temple. But she should have recovered already, and she was nowhere to be seen in the ceremony, despite having been invited. Tired of waiting, Zeil left the hall, and walked towards one of the balconies. She wondered if she was doing it on purpose.

"Why so lonely?" A voice spoke behind him, as he gazed at the night sky. He didn't need to turn around to know it was her.

"I was starting to think you would have stood me up." He said, without turning around.

"I apologize. I… took my time to get ready for this." She said. "Also, I was talking to your mother about something."

Zeil finally turned around to see her. If he didn't know better, he would have thought she was a completely different person. Din was dressed in an elegant, ruby-red gown, strapless and sleeveless, adorned with a golden necklace and matching belt, both of them with rubies. She wore long gloves matching with the dress, and a golden cirlet holding her hair, still in her traditional ponytail. The only differences in her face were a light purple eyeshade and dark red lipstick. She really looked gorgeous, and Zeil momentarily was left speechless upon seeing her.

"So, what were you two talking about?" Zeil asked, once he regained his voice.

"After what happened in the past few days… it was a shame that our date was interrupted, you know that."

"Don't remind me." Zeil replied.

"The Queen thought… you and I deserved some time, just for us." Din continued. "Originally, I was planning on returning to Holodrum after this ceremony. But now…"

Din paused for a while before saying the rest. Zeil, however, became hopeful, expecting for her to say what he wanted to hear.

"I'd like to stay for a while here, in Hyrule Castle. That way, I can be your dancing instructor full time."

"Just that?" Zeil said. "I thought I had graduated from being your student."

"Oh, is that so? Well, you'll have to show me how much you've learned, student. In there, at the dancing floor." Din challenged him.

"As you wish, teacher." He said.

Zeil finally was ready to take it to the dancing hall in the castle and go back to the party, but befor he did, Din stopped him by grabbing his shoulder.

"What's the matter?" He asked, confused. Din stared directly into his eyes, grabbed him by his chin, and without a second thought, she kissed him. Zeil wasn't expecting this, but of course he didn't complain, neither he opposed any resistance.

"I owed you, from the other night." She said, when she finally let go.

"Well, better late than never." She smiled, as they walked back to the hall. The time for the final test had finally arrived.

Meanwhile, at the other side of the room, Link and Zelda, also dressed in their own evening clothes, had been watching the little exchange between Zeil and Din.

"They had it easy to start a relationship." Zelda said.

"Yeah, all he had to do, was accepting taking dancing lessons with her… and saving her from a General of Darkness." Link added.

"So, what about us?" Zelda turned around to gaze at Link.

"What do you mean "us"?" Link replied.

"Don't play dumb. Link, I know you've never said this directly, but…"

"I know, I know." He interrupted. "Your indirects have always been very direct, I can see that."

"Link, I mean this." Zelda continued. "Today I'm becoming of age, and I want to behave with maturity. I want to have a serious relationship with you. Not as a child, but as an adult woman, do you understand? This is not a whim, it's…"

"Shhh… that's enough." Link shushed her, placing his finger on her lips, and then giving her a kiss, showing her that he, too, wanted their relationship to become more than just a childish romance play.

From the hall's stairways, Queen Selena gazed at her two children, and a smile crossed her face. They were growing up; as a mother, she couldn't feel more proud of them. They had taken their first step for their future life, by choosing the partners they wanted to share it with. And if they needed some "help", of course, she would be there to support them wholeheartedly. It was just the first day of the rest of their lives.

 ** _FIN_**

* * *

 **Author's notes:**

Alright, it's finished. I'm quite sad it didn't get any reviews, but well, what's to do now. I'm guessing that a DinxOC story is not as appealing as a ZeLink story, but I'd like to know how I did with this. Like I said, this is my first time trying a pairing with an original and and official character.

Until next time, I guess.


End file.
